Me and...? ...and I? or, ...and me?

Question

Simple English... or not. I've been locked in a quandry where the above is concerned.

My understanding:

- Always put yourself last.
- ...and I : eg. I went to the shop makes sense, whereas me went to the shop doesn't, ergo John and I went to the shop is correct, and John and me went to the shop is incorrect.

Is my reasoning flawed?
Did I miss that very important lesson when I was admiring the rather lovely English teacher we had at school?
Are there examples where both part 2 and 3 of my question are correct?

Hardly deep and philisophical, I apologise, but it's been bothering me.

Answer 1

* Yes, always put "I" or "me" last.

Subject form:
John went to the shop.
I went to the shop.
John and I went to the shop. (compound subject)

Object form:
The ball hit John
The ball hit me.
The ball hit John and me. (compound object)

Object of preposition:
The book is for John.
The book is for me.
The book is for John and me.

* Also, if you use "and" then you treat the subject as plural:
John and I are going to the store.
* But if you use "or" then the verb matches the second subject, since it is closer to the verb:
Either John or I am going to the store.
Neither John nor I am going to the store.

Answer 2

First of all, in most cases, you should put yourself last, although I believe that's more custom than a hard and fast grammatical rule.

Moving on to the second part: whether you use "I" or "me" depends on what part of the sentence they are being used as (and therefore, whether they are in the subjective or objective case). If you'd like to find the rules related to that, they're quite widely available online. However, to easily determine whether to use "I" or "me" in any case, as I think you've noted, take out the other person and see which sounds correct.

e.g.:

She went to the store with me.
Therefore: She went to the store with John and me.

but

I went to the store.
Therefore: John and I went to the store.

In other words, both can be correct, but not at the same time.

Answer 3

You are correct on both counts and Congratulations! You must be one of the few men who can keep his mind on more than one thing at a time.

Answer 4

The Queen always says My Husband and I,Good enough for me

Answer 5

The short answer is that you are quite correct!

Answer 6

Only put 'and I' where you would put 'I' anyway, for example

'I went shopping' would become 'My boyfriend and I went shopping'.

But

'My boyfriend took me shopping' would become

'My boyfriend took me and my friends shopping' NOT 'my friends and I'

Answer 7

The use of ' I' or 'me' depends upon the placement in the sentence - if it is subjective case or objective case.