Some of my Smartest Friends Need an English Lesson: The Battle of You & I vs. You & me!



Mom and ME!

Okay, today I will be discussing one of my BIGGEST pet peeves! I'm always amazed at how many of even my smartest friends don't know when to properly use, "I" & when to properly use, "me". We're talking friends that took honors courses in school. What's really sad is that some of them might be reading this right now & thinking, "Well, I'm absolutely positive that I know when to use "I" or "me" so she's not about to teach me anything I don't know already!". So, nothing annoys me more than logging onto FB, looking through some of the latest pics posted by friends & seeing the incorrect caption below a photo! I swear, it seems like 80% of my friends will post a picture that will be of them & oh, just as an example, their mother. Okay, trivia question time! Pick the correct caption for the picture of said friend & their mother: "Mom & I" or "Mom & me"?? If you picked, "Mom & I", you are..... W R O N G!!!!! Would you like to know why you are wrong? Okay, let's take your mom out of the picture. Now you're left with just a picture of you. Would you put "I" as the caption of just a picture of you? NO! You'd put "Me" as the caption for a picture with just you in it! So, just b/c you start adding people into the scenario, why in the world do you feel the need to suddenly change the correct pronoun? If you don't believe me, feel free to ask an English teacher. I will bet every single possession I own that I am correct. I sucked at Geometry & Chemistry, but I was always good with English! So, let's continue with this English lesson, shall we? Obviously, there will be times that using "I" will be proper & "Me" will be wrong. Let's do another trivia question. Okay, pick the sentence that uses proper English:  "Grandma & me went to the store." or "Grandma & I went to the store.". If you picked, "Grandma & I", you are CORRECT! A lot more people probably passed this trivia question than did the first one, but still, let's explain why the sentence using "I" is correct. Take "Grandma" out of the equation. You would say, "I went to the store.", not, "Me went to the store.". People who got the last trivia question wrong actually don't bug me as much as people who got the 1st trivia question wrong. I've literally seen 100s of pictures on FB that have something like, "Mom, Suzie, & I" as the caption underneath. I seriously feel like pulling my hair every single time I see it. It's not a picture of "I', dammit, it's a picture of, "Me"!!!! I've tried so hard to hold my tongue & not correct people, but it's been a couple of years since I've really started noticing just how many people get this wrong & I can't take it anymore. I will now start being an asshole & correcting people in the comment box below the picture. I don't care if it makes you mad or annoys you! It makes me mad & annoys me to see super intelligent people using the wrong pronoun... especially super smart people in their late 20s and beyond! And, as I mentioned somewhere above, if you still think you're right & I'm wrong, ask an English teacher or someone who majored in English. If you've read this post, had an "A-ha!" moment, & now believe that you have a million pictures on FB with the incorrect caption underneath it, PLEASE, go correct them! All one million of them! Seriously! I'm surprised I haven't started getting gray hairs over this. It's so annoying. Reading those incorrect captions are the visual equivalents of the sound of nails on a chalkboard to me! Now, before ending this, realize that I'm not saying my English is always perfect & proper. I'm sure in this post alone there are a few commas placed in incorrect spots but, incorrect use of commas is not my pet peeve! Incorrect use of pronouns is! I bet it would hurt your ears to hear someone say, "Him went to the bank." instead of, "He went to the bank."! Well, that's improper use of a pronoun. What you're doing is the exact same thing so technically, it's just as bad! Now, if you'd still like to yell at me because you believe I'm wrong, feel free to message me & I will gladly send you the email address of one of my high school English teachers. He'd be happy to know that I paid attention in class when he taught this lesson!

Elmo and ME!!= CORRECT    Elmo and I!!= INCORRECT

Ahh, just to help you out with this topic once more, take the picture of Elmo and ME, above. Okay, now, take Elmo out of the picture. What do you have now? Do you have a picture of I???? NO!! You have a picture of me! The pronoun remains the same, doesn't matter how many people you want to add to the picture!