Today I want to talk about me. No, I don’t mean me, Dean, I mean the objective pronoun me versus the nominative pronoun I. One of the most common errors in speech and writing is to use I where me should be.
Here’s the general rule in the simplest terms: Use I as the subject of a sentence or clause and me as the object of a sentence or clause.
Let me give some examples of the incorrect use of these pronouns:
- “People gave my wife and I four toasters for wedding presents.” (incorrect)
- “One of the best things to happen to Gary and I is that we became best friends.” (incorrect)
Here’s why both are incorrect: the pronoun I is virtually always used in the nominative case, as the subject of a sentence or clause, not the object. The objective pronoun is me. Replace I with me in both sentences:
- “People gave my wife and me four toasters for wedding presents.” (correct)
- “One of the best things to happen to Gary and me is that we became best friends.” (correct)
Here’s an easy test to use when you’re not sure:
In your mind, take out the “[other person’s name] and” and see how it sounds. Let’s try it with our examples.
- “People gave my wife and I four toasters for wedding presents.”
Which becomes:
- “People gave . . . I four toasters for wedding presents.”
Doesn’t sound right, does it? Nope. How about this one:
- “One of the best things to happen to [Gary and] I is that we became best friends.”
Which becomes:
- “One of the best things to happen to . . . I is that we became best friends.”
Uh-uh. Just doesn’t sound right.
So even if you forget the rule about nominative I and objective me, if you remember that simple test, you’ll get the I-me thing right most of the time.
How about an example of using the nominative I correctly?
- “My wife and I gave the newlyweds a toaster for a wedding gift.” (“My wife and I” is the subject in this sentence and therefore is correct.)
Between you and me, let’s fix the title of this essay: It’s “between you and me,” not “between you and I,” which is just wrong. You and me are both objects of the preposition between. Make sense? Of course!
© 2016 by Dean Christensen
The Dean's English 