Grammar Rules Part 2 - I and Me

In this post I will discuss the Number One grammatical mistake that I hear and read these days. This mistake is made by nearly EVERYONE including respected journalists and reporters, writers, teachers, news-show anchor people, business leaders and politicians. The mistake involves the incorrect use of the pronouns I and me. I guess a lot of people have learned (incorrectly) that the pronoun I is more proper than the pronoun me. In an attempt to be proper, then, most people use I even when it is improper to do so. When people do this I want to slap them.

For example: “John reported to Mary and I that the price of eggs had gone up.” Wrong. Leave Mary out of it. Would you say “John reported to I that the price of eggs had gone up?” Well, you might, but you would deserve a slap if you did.

It’s simple: use I if it is or refers to the subject of the sentence; use me if it is the object of the sentence or the object of a preposition. The mistake usually occurs when there is another pronoun involved as in the example above. The easy fix is to test by leaving out the extra pronoun and see if it makes sense. “John reported to me (leaving out Mary) that the price of eggs had gone up.” This will almost always work.

Incorrect - “They sent Charlie and I an invitation.” They sent I an invitation? To what, a meeting of the grammatically impaired?

Correct - “They sent Charlie and me an invitation.” Use me because it is the object of the verb sent.

Incorrect - “Jim and me went to the store.” Huh? Me went to the store? Not even where I come from. Here you need the subjective (or nominative) pronoun I.

Correct - “Jim and I went to the store. I is the subject in this case so use the subjective pronoun I.

After all prepositions such as about, between, of, on, at, etc. use the objective pronoun me, never I.

Incorrect - “The story was about the King and I.” In this case the pronoun is the object of the preposition about. Test it. Leave the King out of it. “The story was about I.” Slap.

Correct - “The story was about the King and me.” Ahhh.

Incorrect - “The contest wound up being between John and I.” This one is just a little harder to test for but all you have to remember is that after between always use the objective pronoun me; or, substitute about for between and test it. Would you say “The contest was about I?” Not even where you come from.

Correct - “The contest wound up being between John and me.”

Summary

Don’t be afraid to use me.

Use I if it is or refers to the subject of the sentence.

Use me if it is a direct or indirect object or the object of a preposition.

Stop and think before you speak or write. Test to see if it sounds right using the methods mentioned above.

If someone near you uses I when they should have used me, slap them; then apologize and politely refer them to this post.