Words Fail Me by Patricia T. O'Conner

Author:Patricia T. O'Conner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2012-07-23T17:32:49+00:00

An I for an I

Hugh Downs, who often wraps up 20/20 broadcasts by saying, "Good night from Barbara and me," has gotten indignant letters from viewers who think, mistakenly, that he should be saying "from Barbara and I." I hear that the same thing used to happen to Harry Reasoner when he did the evening news with Barbara Walters.

Perhaps the single most common mistake in grammar these days is using I instead of me. "This is just between you and I,"a friend writes conspiratorially. Or a colleague says in a memo, "The boss humiliated Ellen and I." Or Aunt Agatha writes, "Happy Birthday from Uncle Miltie and I."

It's me, it's me, it's me, O Lord!

So what's I got that me doesn't? Many people seem to feel that I is somehow classier than me, probably because of all the nagging they got as kids for saying, "Me want Twinkies," or "Me hate broccoli." They're left with the impression that there's something second-rate about me. Impressions like that are hard to overcome, but a trick might help.

When I or me appears by itself, we never mess up. No one says, "The boss humiliated I." So when I or me is part of a pair, just eliminate the other guy. In Aunt Agatha's note, for example, get rid of Uncle Miltie: Happy Birthday from me; then put him back in the picture: Happy Birthday from Uncle Miltie and me. Give it a try.

The same trick works with he and him, she and her, they and them, and other pronouns (words that stand in for nouns, like Ike, Lassie, or the Nelsons). Take the sentence Ricky saw she and David at the mall. Is it she or her? Lose David and the answer is obvious: Ricky saw her [and David] at the mall.

Remember, too, that a pronoun at the front of a sentence is more likely to be a subject (I, he, she, they, etc.), while one at the back is more likely to be an object (me, him, her, them). When you have to guess, play the odds.

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