That Darn “Me and I” Thing

Okay, so maybe you haven't been traumatized by the problem of the “me and I” usage. But in some cases writers and speakers use “me” and “I” incorrectly because, as my students whine, “Ms. Robertson, it just ‘sounds wrong' that way.”

That's the trouble with formal language versus informal language. If you hear it wrong enough times, the correct way doesn't sound right. Weird, huh?

How many newscasters have you heard say, “The President gave you and I a big tax break this year.” Oops, I see my grammar check just tagged that one. Good, but do you really want the twenty-year-old who programmed the grammar check to decide correct language usage for you?

Here's the grammar reason why the sentence should say “you and me”: In a nutshell, a direct object HAS to be in the objective case (me, not I). The direct object of the verb “gave” is a compound one—you and me.

If you don't want to mess with the rule, that's perfectly okay. Do as my students do; drop the first part of the compound direct object (you). Then, aha, you'll realize you'd never say, “The President gave I a big tax break.”

Those of you who are pretty grammar-literate are probably thinking, yeah, all right, already, that's easy. I challenge you, however, to listen carefully to newscasters, doctors, lawyers, teachers (especially younger ones who, through no fault of their own, didn't get formal grammar lessons in high school, or even college). I'll bet you find half a dozen of these kinds of errors this week alone.

Now the “who-whom,” “whoever-whomever” confusion is an even bigger problem, but that's another day's discussion!

Happy hunting!

Jo Lewis-Robertson