September 27th, 2006 @ 5:55 pm by: Marc
Improve Yourself: A Quick Me, Myself, and I Grammar Hack
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.
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8 Comments
October 15th, 2006 at 5:51 am
briliant hack…
‘Me’ or ‘I’ has been a pain for a long time…
October 23rd, 2006 at 9:16 am
If only my Grammer/English books explained everything as clearly. Thanks.
May 4th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Thanks for posting, but…
“So, it was in fact “Angel and I” WHO attended the concert.”
May 5th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
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.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Brilliant hack! I wish the teachers at school made it sound this simple.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
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)
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 pm
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”.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:54 am
great reminder and reference for everyone! thank you.
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