Question on grammar

Boromir2k

Registered User
Joined
Sep 15, 2009
Messages
23
Hi,

Being swedish, but still handling the english language fairly well since I only write and read it I still have questions. Its concerning the use of 'I' and 'me'.
I've seen a few explanations online, but still...

Do I say

'...he doesn't play the piano like me/I' ?

'This is between you and me/I' ?

Any easy pointers in this?

Thanks a lot!
 
Hi,

Being swedish, but still handling the english language fairly well since I only write and read it I still have questions. Its concerning the use of 'I' and 'me'.
I've seen a few explanations online, but still...

Do I say

'...he doesn't play the piano like me/I' ?

'This is between you and me/I' ?

Any easy pointers in this?

Thanks a lot!

These things are easy to get hung up on. Eventually you won't have to think about them at all.

In your first example, the full sentence would be, "He doesn't play the piano like me/I play the piano," therefore you would use I, because me doesn't play the piano. A shorter way is "...like me/I do."

In your second example, why not just say instead, "This is between us?" ;) But yes, again, it would be I.

LC has the right of it. Good rule of thumb to keep in mind.

If you have frequent issues with stuff like this, I would recommend a few of the "fun" books on grammar and punctuation like Eats, Shoots, and Leaves.
 
so... does "... between you and I" have 2 subjects?

Unfortunately, many people are terrified of using objective case where subjective case should be used (but not the reverse) so have not understood which belongs where, and the first person subjective is being used more and more in informal speech (even worse, the reflexive, in such constructions as "They gave a present to Jan and myself." Shudder.) But still, at this point, the objective case exists and is in use especially in writing.

In your example, "This is between you and me," (the correct form), what governs the case of the personal pronouns is the preposition "between." Prepositions take objects, not subjects. (Prepositions include to, from, among, between, before, after, etc.) The confusion usually arises with the verb "to be" which, in formal speech (but not everyday speech) does not take an object: "It is I" and "That was she on the phone" are correct. But if you add in a preposition, then it's back to objective: "Give it to me" or "I bought it from her" or "The tickets were handed to them by a stranger."

When faced with a compound subject or object such as "He and I" or "you and me", use either a singular first-person pronoun alone, or the plural form to check if you're not sure whether you need an object or subject. "This is between us" is correct; "This is between we" is clearly not. You need the objective...and so "This is between you and me" is correct. "This" is the subject. Since "is" doesn't take an object, "between you and me" defines a location of action (in this case a limit to sharing information) and the preposition is the reason for the objective case.
 
I is a subject. "I gave her a toy."

Me is an object. "Please give the toy to me."

In other words, prepositions (such as "to") take an object. If there's a preposition, the noun it governs is the object of the preposition and (if a declinable pronoun) should be in objective case.

A compound form takes the same case as a simple one would: "The dog jumped at me" and "The dog jumped at us" and "The dog jumped at Jane and me."
 

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