Kenixkil
Thu, 19th Aug '04, 8:20am
Is proper grammar "~, someone and me." or "~, someone and I" ?
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View Full Version : English Grammar question Kenixkil Thu, 19th Aug '04, 8:20am Is proper grammar "~, someone and me." or "~, someone and I" ? Djieff Thu, 19th Aug '04, 4:50pm It's "~, someone and I". If you want to be sure, just add a verb at the end and check if the three elements fit with that verb. Ex.: Bob, someone and I were walking in the park. 1- Bob was walking in the park 2- Someone was walking in the park 3- I was walking in the park Everything fits. However, with "~, someone and me", #3 would become *Me was walking in the park, which doesn't work. So there you have it. Eric Xanthus Thu, 19th Aug '04, 4:58pm The answer above is only partly correct. You could conceivably use "someone and me" as the direct object of a sentence, or as the object of a preposition, although it might sound a little strange. "The police caught someone and me in the park." "Mary was walking in the park with someone and me." The strange sound is pairing "someone" with "me" in this case, as you would ostensibly know who was with you. But it makes perfect grammatical sense. Splunge Thu, 19th Aug '04, 5:44pm Just remember this simple phrase: 'I' before 'Me' except after 'We' Or am I getting confused with something else? :xx: Iago Thu, 19th Aug '04, 6:10pm "Me" is incorrect. Yet it is common and seems to have abolished the correct form "I". So, "Me" is, as confusing that is, correct. But the grammatically correct form "I" is also allowed... it is the grammatically correct form after all. So, the answer to "Who is there ?" is "me". If you happen to be an English teacher, you are also allowed to say "I". Because you can prove that the proper form would be nominative, because someone (subject) is actually there and that someone can't possibly be a dative object in the same sentence... Now to "thou", "thy" and "thee"... Thinking about it, them wouldn't give I the right to say "I" in cases an "I" would be necessary because me doesn't happen to be any kind of English teacher. Wordplay Thu, 19th Aug '04, 6:27pm It's whatever sounds the best -can't you do it on hear-say already? :xx: Harbourboy Thu, 19th Aug '04, 9:44pm The answer to this question is very simple. Djeff and Eric are on the right track. Use 'I' when you are the subject of the clause (i.e. the one 'doing' the verb) and use 'me' when you are the object (i.e the one have the verb done to you). Therefore: "Rotku and I watched New Zealand win the basketball last night" and "The New Zealand basketball team took Rotku and me by surprise when they beat the Serbians." Iago Thu, 19th Aug '04, 11:25pm Don't believe the hype! Someone and me is legal English! Etymology: Middle English, from Old English mE; akin to Old High German mIh me, Latin me, Greek me, Sanskrit mA usage Me is used in many constructions where strict grammarians prescribe I. This usage is not so much ungrammatical as indicative of the shrinking range of the nominative form: me began to replace I sometime around the 16th century largely because of the pressure of word order. I is now chiefly used as the subject of an immediately following verb. Me occurs in every other position: absolutely <who, me?>, emphatically <me too>, and after prepositions, conjunctions , and verbs, including be <come with me> <you're as big as me> <it's me>. Almost all usage books recognize the legitimacy of me in these positions, especially in speech; some recommend I in formal and especially written contexts after be and after as and than when the first term of the comparison is the subject of a verb. This one (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=me) Harbourboy Fri, 20th Aug '04, 12:16am I think my explanation made more sense than that one (even though the answer was the same). If the sentence still makes sense when you remove 'Someone and' then it is valid. That's about all there is to it. Kenixkil Fri, 20th Aug '04, 8:29am Thanks you everyone. @Wirhe I don't trust my hear-say anymore, because it's getting a little confusing. I have been out of the States for over six years, after all, and it's all a little vague now. chevalier Tue, 24th Aug '04, 3:42pm The forms "I", "we", "he", "she", "they" etc are Nominative and only that. Therefore: It's I. It's we. It's he. It's she. It's they. She and [/b]I[/b] drank ourselves into oblivion and the light became dim as we hit the floor. They saw you and her running. It's incorrect to say, for instance They saw you and she running, or She and me drank..., so the limitation works both ways, ie sometimes it's correct to say "me" and incorrect to say "I" as well as the other way round (the classic "it's me" problem). |