Since my current job entails a great deal of technical writing, I constantly find myself struggling over the proper construction of certain grammatical statements. Believe it or not, the basic English words “Me”, “Myself”, and “I” can become quite a challenge to incorporate properly. Although these grammar errors are easily overlooked, I discover them in my own writing on a regular basis.
How many times have you made a statement constructed in the form of “Angel and me”, only to have some smarty pants correct you by explaining that it should be set up as “Angel and I”? The bottom line is that they may be wrong, but they could be right. The bitch of it is… it can go either way. It depends on whether you are the subject or the object of the statement.
So did “Angel and I go to the concert” or was it “Angel and me”? Just remove Angel from the equation. I wouldn’t say “Me went to the concert”. I would say “I went to the concert”. So it was in fact “Angel and I” who attended the concert. But what if Angel handed out the concert tickets? Did “Angel hand Sam and I the concert tickets”? Or did “Angel hand Sam and me the concert tickets”? Well, Angel wouldn’t hand “I” a ticket, she would hand “me” a ticket. So under this circumstance, it is correct to say “Angel handed Sam and me the concert tickets”.
If you want to step it up a notch by using the word “Myself”, you could use it to emphasize your point of view. But, it should be neither the subject nor the object (unless the object is the subject… example in a sec), and it is certainly not a substitute for “Me” or “I”. You could say “Wow! I loved the concert, myself.” or “As the owner, I (the subject) am giving myself (the object) a large bonus.” But you would be incorrect in saying “I have concert tickets for you and myself”. The previous sentence should read “You and me”.
Sorry for boring you. I only wrote this out as a personal reminder to myself. If it helps someone else, fantastic.
Ashish Chatterjee says
briliant hack…
‘Me’ or ‘I’ has been a pain for a long time…
Mindstormer says
If only my Grammer/English books explained everything as clearly. Thanks.
TT5K says
Thanks for posting, but…
“So, it was in fact “Angel and I” WHO attended the concert.”
Marc says
Great catch TT5K. You are absolutely correct. The sentence should read:
So, it was in fact “Angel and I” who attended the concert.
Not… So, it was in fact “Angel and I” that attended the concert.
I’ll make the change above. Thanks for the correction. Too bad it only took 7 months for someone to catch that one. 😉
Garvey says
And there shouldn’t be a comma after the coordinating conjunction ‘so’ that begins the sentence.
Marc Chernoff says
Correction made. 😉
DM says
Brilliant hack! I wish the teachers at school made it sound this simple.
CW says
Often troubling usage.
What should be used in the following:
Three of us are going…the last three chairs, Julie, Kurt, and (me, I, or myself)
ER says
Very well done.
However, when using “who” or “whom” one should consider this.
“It was Angel and I who went to the concert”
“It was Angel and ME to whom the tickets were given”
As whom is the object Angel and you must be the object as tickets are given to ME and not I. The subject in the last sentence is “tickets”.
In response to CW, the answer is “I”.
mojo says
great reminder and reference for everyone! thank you.
bre!nda says
it helped! thanks for posting this 😉
Shaun says
One of the best pieces of advice I read in regards to using me in a sentence such as The committee forwarded the statement to Doris and me was ‘If you think that sounds too casual, get over it!’ 🙂
Les says
I just got out of a staff meeting and stutterd twice on the usage of these words, so decided to look it up: Here goes
“The committe members are, from the programs department, Danielle and me” (Is me correct there? It sounded so wrong!”
and
“If you have any suggestions please email Danielle or me” your suggestions.
(People at work ALWAYS use myself in both cases and i’ve been wondering if i missed that grammar lesson.)
cheryl says
Thank you very much for your lovely reminder. it helps me with my “me, myself, and I” problem. Thanks.
josey says
so help me out here, if using this phrase in a sentence is “me, myself and i” grammatically correct? or should it really be “me, myself and me?” 🙂 arrrgggh!! lol!
Livingston says
I know these were posted ages ago, but if you come back here it is.
Les you are correct on both accounts.
Josey, the phrase “me, myself, and I,” is grammatically correct as they are not functioning pronouns in the sentence, but simply an arbitrary list of words.