Choose Between "I" and "Me" Correctly

When relating a story, do you wonder whether to say, "Hector and I went to the movies," or "Hector and me went... ." Here, you would say, "Hector and I went to the movies," but (despite what your mother may have told you) "Hector and I" is not always correct. "The race was won by Hector and I" is just as ungrammatical as "Hector and me won the race." It's easy to choose correctly if you remember a few simple steps.

Steps

I and Me Usage Cheat Sheet

Doc:I and Me Usage

Choosing Between I and Me

  1. Remember the difference in case between the pronouns. Both I and me are pronouns that we use to refer to ourselves, but I<i> is nominative, suitable for use as the subject of a sentence or clause, and <i>me<i> is accusative, suitable for use as the object of a verb.[1]
    • Nominative – The nominative case is used when the pronoun is the subject (e.g. "I rode in the car") or, when speaking very formally, after a form of "to be" (e.g. "It is I," would be formal, "It's me" would be informal).

    • Accusative – The accusative case is used when the pronoun is the object (e.g. "He drove me to work") or with prepositions (e.g. "between you and me," not "between you and I").<p>
  2. Think like a native. Most native speakers rarely make case errors with these pronouns, except when they are paired with other nouns as part of a compound subject or object. (Unfortunately, problems with pronoun case are more common today than twenty years ago.) Although almost no one would say, "Harry took I in his car," one often hears sentences such as "Harry took Jordan and I in his car."
    • If you're trying to determine which pronoun to use in a sentence with a compound subject, try the sentence using only the pronoun part of the subject. Whichever pronoun, <i>I<i> or <i>me<i>, sounds right alone is the one to use in the compound subject.
  3. Reduce or simplify the sentence. It can be hard to tell whether to use "I" or "me" in a long, complicated sentence with more than one subject or object. For example, "Me, Hector, and Sam went to the store" doesn't sound to most people all that much better or worse than "Hector, Sam, and I went to the store."
    • Mentally delete all other subjects or objects so that the sentence is reduced to its simplest form, with just "I" or "me" remaining. In this example, you would be left with "Me went to the store" and "I went to the store."
    • Now, it's much easier to see that "I" is correct.
  4. Avoid "Bizarro-speak." In Superman comics, there's an imperfect version of Superman called Bizarro, and he does everything in a backward sort of way. He says, "Goodbye" when he means, "Hello," and he says things such as "Me am so sad to see you" (meaning "I'm glad to see you"). Bizarro, and a little bit of conceit, can help you learn proper pronoun use: If you change the subject around to a different spot in the sentence, and make it about you and only you, you can easily spot the places where the wrong usage of "I" and "me" will make you sound like Bizarro.
    • Examples:
      • "Harry and me went to the store." (Change it around so that Harry's out of the picture and it's just about you - you would never say, "Me went to the store.")
      • "Who's at the door?" You answer, "It's me." (No, no, no! You would really properly say, "It is I." Consider a related sentence: “That writer is me.” Try reversing the word order,[2] and you end up with “Me am that writer.” You use nominative pronouns such as "I" after forms of “to be” (i.e. am, are, is, was, were, be, being, and been). The “to be” functions as an equal sign, so the nouns and pronouns on both sides of the “equal sign” are nominative.
      • "The cake was made by Justin and I." (Would you ever say, "The cake was made by I"?)
  5. Use pronouns correctly in comparisons to prevent ambiguity. Write out the full comparison to decide which pronoun to use.[3] In the following sentence, "I" or "me" may both be correct, but the word you select changes the meaning of the sentence: "She likes Winifred more than I/me."
    • "She likes Winifred more than I" means that "She likes Winifred more than I like Winifred."
    • "She likes Winifred more than me" extends to "She likes Winifred more than she likes me."
    • Writing out the implied words can help you avoid ambiguity and use the correct word in context.

Tips

  • Teachers, don't forget to look at the other wikiHows in the English Grammar for additional articles on grammar that you can easily incorporate into your teaching.
  • Remember to figure out proper usage before you begin to speak; consider saying the sentence desired silently to yourself to determine if you are using the proper word.
  • Practice in your head before you say it until it becomes automatic.
  • Here's a good tip; just remember 'me' never did anything. When you are the subject of the sentence, the one doing something, use "I."
  • Be careful with your pronouns when you switch voices. Remember that "by" is a preposition and requires the accusative case in sentences such as "The story was written by me." This sentence would use the nominative case if written in the active voice: "I wrote the story."
  • Do not use "myself" in place of "I" or "me." "Myself" can be either a reflexive pronoun or intensive pronoun.
    • David and myself were present. (The pronoun should be in the nominative case: "David and I were present.")
    • The event was catered by Elizabeth and myself. (The pronoun should be in the genitive case: "The event was catered by Elizabeth and me.")
    • I cut myself. (The sentence is correct because the pronoun is reflexive; the subject did something to itself.)
    • I saw it myself. (The sentence is correct because the pronoun is intensive; it adds emphasis.)

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_17.htm
  2. ↑ http://www.towson.edu/ows/pronouns.htm
  3. ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/595/02/

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