Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Words that make me cringe, part 6

I. To be more precise, you and I. It is almost always used wrongly now, because mostly, the correct expression is you and me.

When I was at school, we were taught to strip away the you and and see if the personal pronoun sounded correct on its own.

Technically, I is nominative and me is objective. If you bung you and in front of it, you must still use I when it is the subject and me when it is the object.

Here are some examples:
You and I have been living in Bathurst for over seven years now.
It's very important to you and me.
But I fear that you and I is going to completely replace you and me.

Public speakers, including preachers, use it wrongly all the time. The only Christian minister I hear using it correctly is Peter O'Brien, research professor at Moore College.

3 comments:

Gordon Cheng said...

Hey David! Nice photo with grandson.

However in your example:

You and I have been living in Bathurst for over seven years now.

your rule about stripping away the "You and" leaves us with

I have been living in Bathurst for over seven years now.

Which is fair enough isn't it? Only Cookie Monster would say

Me have been living in Bathurst for seven years now!

David McKay said...

Hmmmm

It was supposed to be an example illustrating the correct usage, which is a bit stupid when I was writing about words that make me cringe.

I think you've made a fair point.

Gordon Cheng said...

Ah, me see!

Me think you give good example! ;-)