“You and Me” or “You and I”
Quick quiz: Fill in either “me” or “I” in the blanks below.
Henry and _________ ate the cake.
The cake was eaten by Henry and _________.
Tom, including James and _________, was invited to the party.
Everyone, except Sarah and _________, went to see the show.
If you’re having a hard time with some of those sentences, don’t worry. You are not alone. There are two ways to address this.
Method 1: Subject and Object
The first way is to identify the subject and object of the sentence.
The subject of the sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something.
For example,
- John is here.
You should ask the question, “Who is here?” John is. Hence, John is the subject.
- John ate the cake.
Ask yourself, “Who ate the cake?” John ate it. Hence, John is the subject.
- The cake is being eaten by John.
Ask yourself, “What is being eaten by John?” The cake is being eaten. Hence, the cake is the subject.
In the third example, John is known as the object.
Now, “I” is used to refer to the subject, and “me”, the object.
For example,
- I got the book from Tim.
Who got the book from Tim? I did. Hence, “I” is the subject.
- Tim gave the book to me.
Who gave the book? Tim did. Hence, Tim is the subject, and we use “me” as the object.
To use one of the questions in the quiz:
Tom, including James and _________, was invited to the party.
Who was invited to the party? Tom was. Hence, the subject is Tom, and the object is “James and me”. So,
Tom, including James and me, was invited to the party.
Method 2: Covering
Another way to do this, if the whole subject and object thing is too hard to understand, is to cover the other pronoun (usually a person or group of people) in the sentence.
For example,
- Henry and _________ ate the cake.
Cover “Henry and” and you get: I ate the cake.
- The cake was eaten by Henry and _________.
Cover “Henry and” and you get: The cake was eaten by me.
- Tom, including James and _________, was invited to the party.
Cover “James and” and you get: Tom, including me, was invited to the party.
- Everyone, except Sarah and _________, went to see the show.
Cover “Sarah and” and you get: Everyone, except me, went to see the show.
Personally, I prefer that my students learn to identify subjects and objects of a sentence. However, it’s not bad thing if students learn to use “I” and “me” correctly as a habit and learn the grammatical reasons for this later in life. End of the day, I hope that you and I have learnt something from this blog that is useful to you and me!
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