A Peeve Between You and I

Lately, I keep hearing people say things such as, “So my mother said to my brother and I…” or “They took a picture of my wife and I…” You would never say “So my mother said to I…” or “They took a picture of I…” You should, of course, say “me”.

But since people know it is wrong to say, for example, “My friend and me are going to the movies”, they tend to get confused about when to use “I” and when to use “me”. “I” is the subject form and “me” is the object form.

Using “I” when you should use “me” is known as hypercorrection. Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day recently explained the problem:

“Some people learn a thing or two about pronoun cases, but little more. They learn, for example, that it's incorrect to say “It is me” or “Me and Jane are going to school now.” But this knowledge puts them on tenterhooks: through the logical fallacy known as “hasty generalization,” they come to fear that something is amiss with the word “me” -- that perhaps it's safer to stick to “I.” They therefore start using “I” even when the objective case is called for: “for you and I [read ‘me’]”. These are gross linguistic gaffes, but it is perennially surprising how many otherwise educated speakers commit them. Many writers and speakers try to avoid the problem by resorting to “myself,” but that’s another error.”

So don’t incorrectly mix up “I” and “me” in front of I, er, me.

--Curly