I and Me.

Who is travelling to France?
The passengers for France are my wife and I!

Hard if you are Caribbean where me supersedes I most of the time – BUT it is still English. Just as Australian English, American English, New Zealand English, Indian English, etc. are all varieties/dialects of the same language. That is one of the things that makes the language so rich. I am, however, English English to the core, so use I and me in the standard grammatical way. Don't get me started on the subjunctive.

Someone wondered about the teaching of grammar in schools. It is endless so I understand. Obviously it has little affect on people's speech !!! ( maybe that's a good thing.)

mcem I was about 10 at the time. We didn’t think to give her examples of how inaccurate that was. This was the same teacher, a nun, who couldn’t spell ‘disappointed’ and wrote it as ‘dissapointed’ on a spelling list.

My point being that, in those days at least, not all teachers knew their stuff. And this was at a private school!

I also remeber being taught that plants ‘breathe’ in carbon dioxide and ‘breathe’ out oxygen. ?

Can someone please give me simple rules to know when to say I or me please?

I thought I was relatively good at grammar but suspect I get this wrong sometimes.

mrsmopp ‘I'm baffled by Anjas post.’ [sic]

What part of it baffled you? I’m saying I was told this by a rather ignorant teacher. I’m not saying I was ‘taught’ it as I already knew that was inaccurate, even at 10 years of age.

NanKate if you can follow it with a verb then it is ‘I’ even if the verb is ‘understood’.

eg
‘Who’s coming for a walk with me?’
‘Rose and I’

because the I could be followed by a verb eg ‘Rose and I are’

‘Sandra bought a snack for me’ is correct

Nankate If you would say "We . ." then it is " You and I . ." If you would say "It happened to us. . ." then it is "It happened to you and me . ." See the examples below.

I've crossed out the bad grammar. Talking to a grand child - Just as you would say "We love you" not "Us love you" it is " Grandad and I love you"

I am not getting into verbs, pronouns, nominatives etc as that puts people off. everyone says we and us in the right places (most of the time!) so just link up we with I and us with me.

As you would say "You'll see us tomorrow, not "You'll see we tomorrow" you would say "You'll see grandad and me tomorrow".

Got it ??

Great! Sorry but somehow my last post didn't show the line I drew through the "wrong grammar" bits. Don't know why.

Presumably the teacher who wanted to have I at the end of a sentence was commenting on the fact that that our generation of children got away with saying "It's me!" or "it was him" instead of "It is I!" or "It was he!" but this grammatical rule only ever applied to the verb "to be".

What about a line in a letter from a friend (details have been changed to protect the guilty): "It makes John and I's problems seem less important."

why do so many people find this difficult

I can only answer for myself. I was never taught any grammer at school and when I later did a degree that included an English module I was totally flummoxed. I excelled at the pigeon and colloquial Englishes but still have little understanding of the largely incomprehensible rules (to me) even now.

I don't think I am stupid (a BA Hons a BSc and an MA all self funded as an adult)I had a 40 year career that helped save many lives and made differences to others. I hold that up as an achievement for someone who left school wi nowt. I know I will get slated for saying this, but do these rules really matter for a language that is embracing change on the world stage and which has a richness of local variation? I welcome your thoughts.

WhenIwasyourage
“It makes John’s and my problems....”

WhenIwasyourage perhaps you friend went to the Sam’s school as I!

Bl**dy predictive text.....

Perhaps your friend went to the same school as I!

Maw, I do know that! That's why I was so flabbergasted when I read it! Sadly, I have seen the same thing - "My father and I's seats" - used in a respectable newspaper, although to be fair, it was by a football reporter whose brains may be in his feet.

I was only taught rudimentary grammar.
When people talk about it on here, I've little idea what they're on about.
I just say what I think is right, although I don't mind polite correction. (Polite being the operative word)

Because I like to get my grammar correct I use a small book called 'Common Errors in Written English' by Chambers published in 1992.

I have added handwritten notes over the years and have just added the advice given here about You/Me.

There's a really easy way of remembering; split the sentence up.

You and me will go to town.
You will go ...
Me will go..... obviously wrong, so the sentence should be 'You and I will go to town.'

Even you and myself Bradfordlass that really gets my goat, how has this crept into our speech.?

The first time I noticed 'myself' was its use in conversation 20 years ago by an experienced drama teacher. She was studying for a further qualification. It sounded so pompous and self-important as well as just plain wrong!

I still don't understand the rules..