Sunday, 4 November 2007
Me, myself and I
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“I” is the first person singular pronoun when one is the subject of a sentence and “me” is the first person singular pronoun when one is the object. So “Tom, Dan and I made fun of the grammatically inaccurate drunk in the pub” is correct. However “the drunken man and his friends beat the living crap out of Tom, Dan and I” is incorrect.
I find this mistake especially annoying as it tends to be made by people trying too hard to avoid the word 'me' because it doesn't sound formal. In trying to sound clever they are making the same mistake they want to avoid. My advice: don't be so poncey!
Myself is another form that people wanting to appear grammatical like to overuse. PaulBrains* Brians covers this matter in his book Common Errors in English Usage, which I would suggest you all should buy if it wasn't freely available online.
A reader has emailed in.
Hi,Christan, get out that soap box, chrome-plate it, polish it until it gleams, jump on it, brandish your megaphone with a smug flourish and shout about your peeve to your heart's content because you are absolutely right.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when people on Facebook or Myspace will put captions on their photos reading "John, Bill, and I" or "Mark and I at the beach". Shouldn't it be "John, Bill, and me"? You wouldn't show a picture to someone and say "this is I at the beach". You would say "this is me at the beach" so shouldn't you use "me" even when you add other people's names to it?
Just wanted to make sure I was correct before I jumped on my soap box.
Thanks,
Christan
“I” is the first person singular pronoun when one is the subject of a sentence and “me” is the first person singular pronoun when one is the object. So “Tom, Dan and I made fun of the grammatically inaccurate drunk in the pub” is correct. However “the drunken man and his friends beat the living crap out of Tom, Dan and I” is incorrect.
I find this mistake especially annoying as it tends to be made by people trying too hard to avoid the word 'me' because it doesn't sound formal. In trying to sound clever they are making the same mistake they want to avoid. My advice: don't be so poncey!
Myself is another form that people wanting to appear grammatical like to overuse. Paul
'Myself' is no better than 'I' as an object. 'Myself' is not a sort of all-purpose intensive form of 'me' or 'I'. Use 'myself' only when you have used 'I' earlier in the same sentence: 'I am not particularly fond of goat cheese myself.' 'I kept half the loot for myself.'Quite right, Paul. He goes on to summarise this topic better than I ever could, so I'll sneak out for a cup of tea while Paul finishes off for me.
All this confusion can easily be avoided if you just remove the second party from the sentences where you feel tempted to use “myself” as an object or feel nervous about “me.” You wouldn’t say, “The IRS sent the refund check to I,” so you shouldn’t say “The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and I” either. And you shouldn’t say “to my wife and myself.” The only correct way to say this is, “The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and me.” Still sounds too casual? Get over it.*Well done for spotting my deliberate mistake, MRP. Good to know you are paying attention.
Labels: facebook, grammar, myspace, pet peeves, pronoun, reading list, top ten
posted by Gez at 5:38 PM
10 Comments:
One of the main factors in the incorrect usage of "I" and "me" is due to an overcorrection of using "me" as a subjective pronoun, as in "John and me went to the game". Then it was drilled into all of us that it was "John and I" and now everyone thinks that is the only correct usage. So now you'll routinely hear people, especially tv journalists use "I" where "me" should be used, not because they think it sounds informal but because they've been overcorrected.
Note: I know I incorrectly placed the period outside of the quote in my first sentence. I personally rebel against the rule that punctuation should be inside quotes when ending sentences. The quoted passage is just a chunk of the main sentence and the punctuation is ending the main sentence not the chunk. I think that rule should be changed! ;) I'd love to hear what other people think about that.
You rebel, you! Actually, I think we've covered this in a comment thread of a previous post (which I can't, for the life of me, find). The rule isn't as set in stone as you think. As you are quoting a complete sentence, you could end it ...game.". but that just looks weird. As long as you are consistent with your style, nobody can complain too much about ahow you choose to deal with this.
I agree with Gez (and Bill Bryson). Punctuating quotations which fall at the end of sentences is a bit of a minefield that no-one has ever set a proper rule for - establish your own preference and stick to it.
Punctuating quotations: there seems to be a big difference between US and UK usage. Americans seem to be sticklers for including punctuation within the quote marks, whereas Brits don't unless the punctuation itself is part of the quote.
This is bit of a generalisation I know but it is my experience having taught English as a foreign language working both with other Brits and Americans.
It may be that usage in the UK is changing to match the American model (which would be a shame).
Incidentally, I work for a UK magazine and we don't include punctuation inside our quote marks unless it is part of the quote - so it is not so rebellious as you might think!
Umm, I was going to write about 'me' and 'I' but got sidetracked... maybe next time...
http://engineroomblog.blogspot.com
I have been officially reprimanded for over-zealously promoting my blog on GrammarBlog! Fear not, I shall cease and desist.
But I will, of course, continue commenting...
That wasn't a reprimand, that was a joshing. Everyone should read the engine room, it's great. You can find the link in our friend list.
Setting the grammar issue aside, I have always preferred captioning photos in third person.
Gez, I feel compelled to mention, only because it's such a great typo, that his name is really Paul Brians, although he probably does have a lot of Brains . . .
*Well done for spotting my deliberate mistake, MRP. Good to know you are paying attention.
You know I hang on GrammarBlog's every word, doncha?
I know this is a really old post, I just happened across it today and thought I'd add my question in case someone *is* looking for new comments. In the initial example, the writer stated that "this is I..." would be incorrect. I didn't think it actually was. I seem to remember being taught that after a linking verb a subject pronoun is used, rather than an object pronoun. I know my mother always answered "This is she" when a phone caller asked for her by name. Is there such an exception or not?? The reason I was given for this rule is that "is" (and other conjugations as well) implies equivalence of the subject and object. (this is she <=> she is this)
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