The difference between “you and I” and “you and me”

If you’re like me, you grew up hearing your parents say something like, “It’s ‘Mark and I’, dear.”

Well I’m here to tell you that even in adulthood, it still feels good to learn that your parents don’t know everything.

The proper usage of “you and I”

Your parents weren’t entirely wrong. Using “and I” is still correct – just not all of the time. For an easy way to tell which usage is correct, simply remove the other subject from the sentence. For example:

Mark and I went to the store.

becomes

I went to the store.

In this example, the sentence still makes sense. Using “and I” here is correct.

Here’s another example.

The store was too expensive for Mark and I.

becomes

The store was too expensive for I.

Yikes. Sounds ridiculous, right?

In this case, using “and me” is correct. Then, the sentence with the other subject removed would be: The store was too expensive for me. This sounds nice and normal.

So, there you go! It’s easy to tell when to use “and I” and when to use “and me.” The trick, of course, is convincing your parents.

 

Posted in Spelling & GrammarLanguage.

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