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Please correct the following sentence:
“Jessica and me went to the beach.”
Easy, right? Everybody knows this one. It’s “Jessica and I,” not “Jessica and me,” you say. Well, yes, you are correct. Congratulations.
How about this one:
“Would you like to come to the beach with Jessica and me?”
Same error, right? Nope. This one is actually 100% correct. Why is that? Well, technically “me” is an object pronoun and “I” is a subject pronoun. If you understand what that means, great. But I’ll soon show you why it’s so much easier than that.
The problem with this particular error is that teachers and parents love to harp on this mistake, thus making students believe that “so-and-so and I” is always be the best choice. However, this is simply not the case. “You and me” is as grammatically correct as “you and I.” It just depends on how the sentence is phrased.
So, here’s the trick for these types of sentences.
IN SENTENCES WHERE MORE THAN ONE PERSON IS MENTIONED, READ THE SENTENCE ONE PERSON AT A TIME TO SEE IF IT MAKES SENSE.
The beauty of this trick is that you don’t have to learn any complicated jargon about subject and object pronouns to get these problems right…you can simply read the sentences to yourself and see if it SOUNDS right. In other words, trust your ear.
For example, “Jessica and me went to the beach.” becomes
1) “Jessica went to the beach.” (OK) and
2) “Me went to the beach,” which is obviously incorrect. The correct phrasing would be “I went to the beach,” which explains why we say “Jessica and I” in this case.
The same holds true of my second example:
“Would you like to come to the beach with Jessica and I?” is incorrect because if you follow my rule it becomes the following two sentences:
1) “Would you like to come to the beach with Jessica?” (OK) and
2) “Would you like to come to the beach with I?” Again, this is obviously incorrect. Which explains why “Jessica and me” is the correct phrasing in this instance.
So, next time you are tempted to correct someone who says “You and me,” remember that he/she may in fact be using it correctly!
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