Do you have a hard time getting the usage of I and me right in your writings? I did too until I learned one simple trick that can be applied on the fly to get your prose in line proper grammar.
But first, I need to point out that this does not apply to dialog spoken by your characters. Not all your characters will (or should) speak with perfect grammar and sentence structure. Let their personality show through when they speak.
For non-fiction and expository text in fiction, getting I and me right will promote a professional appearance.
First, it is never proper to place the speaker’s pronoun first:
Me and Sally went to the movies and watched The Blob.
Rules of common courtesy and respect demand that we place the personal identifier after any companions:
Sally and me went to the movies and watched The Blob.
Better, but still incorrect… and here’s that neat trick. If you drop off the companion(s), does the personal pronoun fit?
Sally and Me went to the movies and watched The Blob.
Unless you are the Cookie Monster, that doesn’t sound right at all. That should be:
I went to the movies and watched The Blob.
And if we put Sally back in as the companion:
Sally and I went to the movies and watched The Blob. — Correct!
Changing the sentence structure changes the usage:
Sally asked me to go to the movies and watch The Blob.
Now we no longer have a plural subject (Sally and I). Sally (alone) is taking the action (asked) in this sentence.
Here are some others:
A cab picked Sally and I up to go to the movies.
A cab picked Sally and me up to go to the movies.
Which one is correct? Drop “Sally and” out of the sentence and see:
A cab picked I up to go to the movies. – I don’t think so!
A cab picked me up to go to the moves. – Much better.
There you go!
A simple memory key to help you correctly use I and me.
