The Strategic Retreat

And I or And me

I often hear people say “(person) and I” when it should be “(person) and me”.

I hear people doing this wrong all the damn time. Mainly I think it’s because people learn, incorrectly, that “and I” is the proper way so they correct themselves when they shouldn’t.

If I want to say that Nadya and I are going to the store that’s what I should say. “Nadya and I are going to the store”. *But* if I want to ask if you want to go to the store with Nadya and me, that’s correct. “Do you want to go to store with Nadya and me?”

It’s actually incredibly easy: Ignore the additional person or people and see how you would phrase it. You wouldn’t say “Do you want to go to the store with I”. So you wouldn’t say it that way if you add an additional subject to your sentence.

If it’s “me” by yourself, it’s “me” with an extra person. If it’s “I” by your self, it’s “I” with an extra person. Simple.

About Jeff

Jeff was born in the back of a War Game Store on the day the first Star Trek movie came out, to a computer programmer mother and a father who wrote the story for Dragon's Lair. Jeff has an MBA, a CSM, and a penchant for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong.