At some point in life, almost everyone has been scolded by a parent or teacher for using me when they should’ve used I. While this misconduct might send chills down grammarian spines, it’s fairly prevalent in informal speaking and writing. However, we should be careful that this error doesn’t infiltrate more formal pieces of writing and communication.
So, when is it correct to use I or me? I is a subject pronoun, which means it’s the one doing the action in a sentence. Me is an object pronoun, which means it’s the one being acted upon. Let’s take a look at some examples:
Me and Marco are the ones doing the action here, so I should be used instead.
Some writers might fall into the trap of assuming I is always correct and me is always incorrect, but that’s not the case.
In this sentence, the subject of the sentence is the dog while Marco and I are being acted upon. Therefore, me is the appropriate choice.
If you’re still struggling with when to use I or me, one good trick is to eliminate the other noun from the sentence and check if it sounds correct. Let’s kick Marco out of the incorrect examples above and see what they look like:
Think of this as the caveman check. If a sentence you’re checking ends up sounding like this, you need to change your pronoun.
The use of prepositions in more complex sentences can create confusion as well. For example:
Because the pronouns here follow the preposition between, the pronouns must be in object form. The correct sentence is:
Here is another example:
Can you spot the error? Because the pronoun follows the preposition for, it needs to be in object form. As above, you can check this by getting a divorce (removing the other noun).
You wouldn’t say that, right? The correct version of the sentence would be:
If you’re interested in learning more on the topic, visit our page on subjective and objective pronouns.