Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Calling All Teachers
I've just come back from teaching my ESOL class and in answer to " What did you do at the weekend ? " one of the students wrote " Me and my friends went to the cinema ". I said it should really be " I and my friends... " The student said that was what she put at school but her teacher said it should be " Me and my friends.. "
Is this what they teach nowadays or had she misunderstood ? ( Genuine question btw, not being sarky 
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nick G-T on
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I second Matt; this is how I was taught at home and school. Though someone once told me I was being pretentious for using "I" instead of "me".
The person then went on to say that not even the queen would speak that way. I've not had the chance to verify the accuracy of that statement.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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The Brits speak Euroglish these days Nick. Oh and don't mention the Queen! Causes all sorts of anxieties within the populace.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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I third Matt. (Matt, I third?!) I think the rationale is a form of modesty. So one wouldn't say, Me and the Queen or, I and the Queen, but one would put oneself last, e.g. The King and I.
Disclosure:
A teacher, I am not.
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"I'm not a teacher".
Good!
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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It's easy to check - if you drop the friends part, which sounds right? - I went to the cinema vs Me went to the cinema. Other scenario, They gave it to I, vs They gave it to me - IIRC that latter is the accusative case?
Of course your example should be my friends and I, the first person pronoun is always put second.
Do they teach grammar at all any more? Is is just intuitive?
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I agree Pamish. Same test works on the over-friendly telephone salesman - " Good Morning Mr D. How's yourself ? " "Myself is fine thank you "
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John, I'm afraid the informality revolution has wrongfooted us all. However, since this was a written question & answer, I'd have been inclined to write, "My friends and I went to the cinema." Then again it was probably meant as a written version of a spoken exchange, so the palsy form of "me and my mates", "him and her", "It's you and me against the world, John!" probably gets the green light.
I see Michael Swan's Practical English Usage, 1995 ed allows: "Who said that?" "It was him." and "Who's that?" "It's me." In his original 1980 ed he may have stuck with the more formal usage.
Then on page 435 he decides you need a bit of loosening up: "John and me are going skiing this weekend." Adding that "John and I . . ." would be more correct he explains:""Object forms are sometimes used in co-ordinated subjects with and in informal speech; this is considered incorrect in more formal usage."
At which point my old Grammar School teacher, Baldy Curtin, might have quoted those immortal lines from The Jackdaw of Rheims:
'His eye so dim, so wasted each limb,
That, heedless of grammar, they all cried,
"THAT's HIM!" '
I bid you goodnight. It is I, OAE.
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Thanks all. I agree that " My friends and I..." is better, so perhaps that is what her teacher was getting at ( or that is at what her teacher was getting
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I tend to say "John and me" but write "John and I"
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