Writing Tip 98: Me vs. I (a.k.a. You don’t know how it feels to be “me”)
Sympathies with Tom Petty aside, I’m going to pretend he really wrote the song about the misunderstood and misused word “me.”
When do you use “I”? When do you use “me”? Across the nation, teachers (and editors) squirm with this one every day. We really don’t know how it feels to be that little word that’s so often messed up. It’s so short and innocent sounding. Let’s make an effort to get it right once and for all, folks.
When there’s more than one person in the sentence, the I/me decision seems to explode, so let’s just focus on this single piece. My favorite advice is to think about how a line would be written without the others involved.
If someone said, “Me and Tom Petty are free, free fallin’” (hint: not correct), I’d tell that person to removed Tom Petty.
“Me is free fallin’,” they’d respond.
Wait, what? We all hear that wording as incorrect. “I am free fallin’” sounds more natural for good reason. It’s proper.
This trick works for subjects and predicates alike.
“He’s dancing with Mary Jane and I” might come out of some over-correcting mouths, but does “He’s dancing with I” really sound right? No, no, it doesn’t.
“He’s dancing with me.”
Do you hear the difference? Your ear already knows. Trust it.
Ah, pronouns.
Let’s get to the point
Let’s roll another… hmmm… maybe not.
**insert blues-y harmonica solo here**