Home Β» Segments Β» Me vs. I, Object vs. Subject

Me vs. I, Object vs. Subject

The usage of the word me vs. I will always be a point of debate. Grant and Martha contend that language works in the service of culture, and thus, there will always be informal settings where the words me and I are slung around interchangeably. Then again, there will also be classrooms, job interviews and the like, where “my colleague and I completed the project” is the better choice than “me and my colleague completed the project.” This is part of a complete episode.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 comment
  • Like Martha, I was taught that you should not put yourself first, but someone gave the opinion that it’s not bad English, it’s poor manners instead.

    One more thing that I hear so often is when people substitute “myself” for “me” or “I.” Also, I hear “yourself” used instead of “you.” Apparently, few realize that you only use the “self” version when the person is mentioned earlier in the sentence.

More from this show

Smarmy, A Winner of a Word?

According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...

Saying Oh for Zero

Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...

Recent posts