If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know I’m a stickler for proper grammar. Lately, the widespread misuse/overuse of “I” has come to my attention, so I thought I’d take today’s blog to clear up confusion and provide a little trick for remembering the correct usage.
Many people tend to use the pronoun “I” for everything, even when “me” is correct. For example, I often hear people say things such as:
On the surface, they may sound correct, but let’s look at those offending sentences again and try out the switcheroo technique, where we simply switch the order of the objects:
Those definitely don’t sound right now. That lets you know that you should replace your “I” with a “me.” The following sentences are CORRECT:
Even if you’re convinced you will never fully understand parts of speech, you probably wouldn’t say “This gift is from I and Steve,” so why would you say “This gift is from Steve and I“? If you use the switcheroo technique, I bet you will say “This gift is from Steve and me,” or “This gift is from me and Steve.” And you will be correct!
-Maria
This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2014 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.