VOA慢速英语--Which Pronoun is Correct: I or Me?

Which Pronoun is Correct: I or Me?

On March 5, Jazmine Hughes wrote in a New York Times blog,

“Recently, at an IRL party — that is, a party that takes place ‘in real life,’ as opposed to where I generally live, which is on the Internet — a guest asked a friend and I how we met.”

The sentence includes a common error I have been seeing and hearing more and more often lately.

The error is using the subject pronoun “I” when the object pronoun “me” should be used.

Even President Obama can be heard using “I” for the object of a sentence. At his first press conference, on November 7, 2008, he spoke¹ about being invited to tour the White House. “Well, President Bush graciously invited Michelle and I to -- to meet with him and First Lady Laura Bush.”

The rule for object pronouns

English has eight subject pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, you and they. Subject pronouns show the actor in a sentence. For example, in the sentence “I speak English,” “I” is the actor.

English also has eight object pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, you and them. We use an object pronoun to show the receiver of the action in a sentence, as in “She gave the book to me.” In that sentence, “me” is the receiver.

People often confuse subject pronouns and object pronouns in sentences with two receivers.

Take the sentence “President Obama gave an award to my brother and me.” We can easily see the need for an object pronoun because of the preposition “to.”

But some sentences do not have prepositions, as in “Obama asked my brother and me some questions.” The sentence still needs the object pronoun “me.”

However, some people might want to say “Obama asked my brother and I some questions.” You know that sentence has a grammar error because “I” is not an object pronoun.

Why people say “I” instead of “me”

I think the confusion about “I” and “me” comes from instruction we get as children: to be polite. When we mention ourselves and another person in a sentence, we are told to put the other person first.

For example, we might be reminded to say, “My brother and I went to the White House.” Saying “I and my brother went to the White House” is grammatically correct but would sound impolite, or rude.

So, English speakers who are faced with two people in the object position in a sentence often grab for the phrase “someone and I.” They do not notice the phrase is grammatically incorrect. It just sounds more polite.

Another theory about the “I” or “me” error comes from a 2009 New York Times article “The I’s Have It.”

Writers Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman guess that people correct children who use “me” instead of “I” so much, the children grow up using “I” even when it is wrong. They explain the term for this linguistic² phenomenon is “hypercorrection.”

Back to Ms. Hughes, her party and the New York Times blog. Her sentence should be re-written as “…a guest asked a friend and me how we met.” Shortly after I called the error to the newspaper's attention, the sentence was corrected in this way.

A simple way to check for the correct pronoun in a case like this is mentally to eliminate the second person. Try saying in your head “A guest asked me how we met,” or, “A guest asked a friend how we met.” That simple check makes choosing the correct pronoun easier.

Now you will always know the right pronoun to use – take it from me!

Words in This Story

error - n. something that is not correct; a wrong action or statement; mistake

instruction - n. the action or process of teaching : the act of instructing someone

phenomenon - n. something (such as an interesting fact or event) that can be observed and studied and that typically is unusual or difficult to understand or explain fully³

hypercorrection – n. the mistaken use of a word form or pronunciation based on a false analogy with a correct or prestigious⁴ form?

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。