Let's take up the troublesome use of the pronouns "he and I" or "him" and "me." It's not so hard when you say, "He gave me two tickets to the ballgame" -- knowing that the verb "gave" has to be followed by the objective case --"me;" but what happens when the word "and" sneaks in? You go all wobbly at the knees and panic sets in. DON'T PANIC!
Just ask yourself, "Do I say, 'He gave it to I?'" Of course not, because "I" is nominative (i.e., the subject of the sentence or phrase). And you wouldn't say "He gave it to he and I" or "him and I." Remember the sneaky "and" cannot change parts of speech! It can try, Lord knows, but if you are vigilant, you won't let it.
Examples:
He gave the tickets to my brother and me -- not my brother and I.
My uncle gave the tickets to him and me -- not he and I.
He and I had tickets to the ballgame.
Remember, after a verb or a verb and a preposition ("He gave the tickets to...") you must use the objective case.
By the way, if you don't like the sound of "him and me," just say "us."
We get so used to saying it wrong that the right way may sound wrong at first!
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5 comments:
This gave my brain a good early morning work out! Luckily I don't have a brother and no one's given either of us tickets to a ball game!....LOL
I must tell my son to read your blog...he always makes the mistake, ME and I...
thank you
Mousie
Welcome to blogging Marge. I think you would really enjoy the podcast Grammar Girl. You can go to the Grammar Girl website at QD Now.com. The podcast is very informative.
You are a beacon of light in a storm of errant grammer and semantics. Keep it up...
and i meant GRAMMAR - stupid typing fingers!
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