Dec 12 2007
I or Me?
Is the following sentence right or wrong?
Tell my friend and I.
Although it doesn’t really sound wrong to most of us, the sentence is flawed. How do we know? Here’s a little trick: Take the sentence apart (deconstruct it) and then analyze its parts. In this case, someone is being told to tell something to two different entities: (1) my friend, and (2) I. So let’s look at the parts….
Tell my friend —–. (Sounds okay.)
Tell —————– I. (Ugh! “Tell ————- me” sounds much better.)
Now we know the sentence should read “Tell my friend and me.”
Fortunately, the “I/me” issue can usually be solved simply by deconstructing the sentence and listening to it. This eliminates the need to master the mind-numbing grammatical rules on the subject. Why not keep it simple?
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