Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Curmudgeon - ranting again

Now that I've gotten the Uh-huh? issue off my chest, I feel compelled (that is, I have a certain obsessive-compulsive urge) to rant about another pet peeve: I versus me.

As in, "Me and Michael are going to rob a bank." Or, "The corporation presented my husband and I a beautiful portrait of the Queen of England."

Please, please tell me you can spot the error, and that it irritates you like an eyelash stuck on your eyeball. As the mother of teenagers, it is something I hear - and even read (Damn you, Facebook!) - on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.

Somehow I have failed to instruct my children in the simple grammatical rule: me is the objective case; I is the subjective case of the first-person singular. Object = that which receives the action. Subject = that which carries out the action.

It is most often f*cked up in the compound structure (i.e., when using "and"). The easiest way to check if you've got it right is to remove the "and" bit. You would never (I hope) say, "Me am going to rob a bank," or "The corporation gave I a beautiful portrait of the Queen of England."

There. I feel all better now. I think me and hubby will go celebrate by perusing the office supplies at Staples.

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