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How to stop confusing Me and I. Me and Billy will explain it to you

Honestly, every time I hear “I” and “me” used incorrectly, I’m afraid my head is going to explode, or at least start spinning the way Linda Blair’s did in the movie, The Exorcist.

The common mistake is that people frequently say something along the lines of, “Me and Billy went to the store.” WRONG, and believe me, making this mistake over and over makes you look pretty freakin’ stupid. I hear this mistake made every day by professionals who supposedly have an education.

So what’s wrong, you ask? Well, let me splain it to you in a way that might keep you from making this mistake again and again.

Warning: here’s the grammar lesson that so many people seemed to have missed

Rule No. 1:
When talking about you and others, list yourself AFTER everyone else. In other words, Billy, and anyone else you are listing, goes before “I” or “me.” Do you understand this? Simply stated, you go last. They taught us to let others go first in pre-school. Long before we ever started learning proper grammar.

Rules No. 2 through 4:
“I” is a nominative pronoun and is used as a subject of a sentence or clause, while “me” is an objective pronoun and used as an object. Yeah, I know this sounds complicated, so I’m going to give you some tips so you can forget the rules and simply break your sentence down so it sounds right. So the next time you tell a story about you and Billy going to the store, you can say it correctly.

Here’s my suggestion for understanding how it all works:

After you decide to start putting others before the “I” or “me,” you need to figure out if “I” or “me” is correct.

Tip: break the sentence apart to figure out which is correct.

Which sounds the most correct? I went to the store. Or? Me went to the store. If “I went to the store,” sounds more correct, you should say, “Billy and I went to the store.” Pretty simple, uh?

As the trouble with incorrectly using “me” in these sentences seems to originate when speakers are stringing together two or more objects in a sentence, breaking them into smaller pieces helps determine whether a nominative or objective pronoun should be used. “I” is not an objective case word, but people try to plug it in as an object because it just sounds smarter. So trying to make yourself sound smarter ain’t always going to make you right.

Now, take a look at these examples:

You might be tempted to say:
“Would you sell that to Billy and I?” WRONG

But then, when you omit the other object, you’ll have:
“Would you explain that to I?” WRONG

Now that just sounds silly. Try this:
“Would you explain that to John and me?” RIGHT
“Would you explain that to me?” RIGHT

Keep going with these examples:
Leave the decision to John and I. WRONG
Leave the decision to me. RIGHT
Leave the decision to John and me. RIGHT

Please join Bob and I for lunch. WRONG
Please join me for lunch. RIGHT
Please join Bob and me for lunch. RIGHT

So now do you understand which word to use? If you don’t, Billy and I are going to your house to explain it to you personally.

Your Writing Dept is a Sacramento-based writing firm that specializes in developing technical manuals and user guides. We’re the leaders in technical communications in Northern California. Email us for more information about our services at info@yourwritingdept.com.

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