OK! What's a good mnemonic to remember the me and I rule?

Question

I am quite good at spelling and grammar. Sometimes though, when I make a grammatical slip-up I know instantly its wrong. Therein is the problem, and its happened.....too late not to be slightly embarrassed in the company of educated conversation. The me, and I, ''thingie'' is always my stumbling block.

Answer 1

When using "me" or "I' in a sentence with another subject, remove the other subject from the sentence and see what sounds right.

"Me" is objective and "I" is subjective. In other words, when you are the subject of the sentence, use "I". "I am going to the store." When you are not the subject, but are the receipient of some action, use "me". "He went to the store with me."

Answer 2

There is a difference between grammar and usage. Strictly according to grammatical rules 'I' should always be the subject and 'me' the object of a verb as other answerers have explained. However the usage of, for instance, 'Me and Joe went ....', in which 'me' has become the subject, is so universal that in conversational English there is nothing wrong with it. 'Joe and me went ...' doesn't sound quite as good to me for some reason (probably because the 'me' is directly before the verb). 'Me went ...' is not only wrong but sounds bad even in conversational English. 'Joe and I went ... ' although strictly correct can actually in some contexts sound rather precious and stilted in conversation because of the universality of 'Me and Joe' but in written English (except in direct speech) use 'Joe and I' until written usage catches up with the spoken as it almost certainly will (10 or 20 years?).

Answer 3

Nominative I, Objective Me, Possessive My, or Now I Observe My Pronouns Match (a mnemonic I just created). This is an enormous oversimplification of a complex subject which is probably best explained in 'Fowler's Modern English Usage' by H W Fowler the current edition (2002) is about £5 (on Amazon). Or you might try your local library.

Regards,

Tin

Answer 4

Read
" I do to me what my wish is "
remember with the help of the above sentence that 'I' comes first and then does 'me'(normally). My is used for possession only.
||Good Luck|| dude

Answer 5

I just always think of it like this: If I'm talking about myself and another person, I think of how I would say it if I were only talking about myself. So, "Susie and I went to the mall." I know it's not 'Susie and me' because I wouldn't say "Me went to the mall." Likewise, I would say "Take Susie and me to the store," because I would say "Take me to the store" if it were only me I was talking about. So basically, just think of how you would say it if you were only talking about yourself, and that is how you would say it when you add in another person. Hope that helps! :)

Answer 6

The rule I use to tell whether it's "Joe and me" or "Joe and I" is to try the sentence without the "Joe and" (it doesn't matter whether "Joe" or "me/I" comes first in the pair, the principle is the same). Whichever ("me" or "I") sounds correct (or whichever one doesn't sound strange) is the one you use with "Joe".

Answer 7

The best way to decide if it should be, for example, "John and I" or "John and me" is to take out the "John and." If it would be I, say John and I. For example, it would be "John and I went out," because you wouldn't say "Me went out."

Answer 8

why worry speak like chevs

Answer 9

sorry, I don't know what the "me and I rule" is, but you made 2 spelling errors in your question - your two "its" should both me "it's"