Now in a previous post, I brutalized the language intentionally. In this post, I will make up for my transgressions.
When trying to determine whether to use “I” or “me” in a sentence, break it apart. Let us take the following sentences:
“Mary and I went to the store.”
versus
“Mary and me went to the store.”
If you’re anything like me, if you say either of these sentences enough times, both will start to sound correct. The most efficient (and accurate) way to determine the correct word to use is to make two simple sentences out of the compound sentence. For example:
“Mary and I went to the store.”
would break out to
“Mary went to the store.”
and
“I went to the store.”
The other sentence when broken out yields this gem:
“Me went to the store.”
Unless you’re a Geico spokesperson, this sentence is quite obviously incorrect.
Once you use this little tidbit a few times, it’ll become second nature to you both when writing and speaking.
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