However, prepositions can create some confusion, especially when it is one of the first words in a sentence. We will obviously never say, “Me drove to New York.” For this reason, you also shouldn’t say, “You and me drove to New York.” The correct expression will be the one where the standalone pronoun also makes sense, in this case, “You and I drove to New York.” Beware the PrepositionĪs we said earlier, if a pronoun comes before the verb, it is often the case that it is the subject pronoun that must be used. Tim visited you and I in New York (incorrect) When you have the single object pronoun in the sentence, it is much easier to see that the one will be correct and the other one will be wrong. Remove the Second PersonĪnother good test is to remove the second person from the phrase, so you are just left with either “I” and “me.” We’ll discuss this situation in greater detail later on in this article. This, however, can be a very misleading test because there are times when you will have to use the object pronouns before a verb. The subject pronouns “You” and “I” come before the verb, but in the next sentence, the pronouns come after the verb, and they are the objects: Thomas, the object, is after the verb, so we say:
Jane, the subject, is before the verb, kicked.
For this example, we will use purple for the subject and green for the object. The same will be true for the subject or object pronoun. In English, we usually place a verb’s subject before it, and the object usually goes after it. One way to figure out which pronoun to use is to determine if it comes before or after the verb. There are some “cheats” to help you when you are in a bind. It happens to the best of us because knowing the rule and always applying it correctly are two different things. When to Use “You and I” or “You and Me”Įven if we know a rule backward and forward, we can often make mistakes while talking. Let’s take a closer look at the difference and how we can easily test when to use which one. This means that we can only use “You and I” as the subject of a sentence, and we can only use “you and me” as the object.Įven though there is a very definite rule regarding when we can use which one, many often confuse these two constructions and use them interchangeably. However, “I” is a subject pronoun, while “me” is an object pronoun. “You and I” and “you and me” are both correct and acceptable constructions in English.
Shakespeare wrote, “All debts are cleared between you and I.” It is a lovely sentiment, but, unfortunately, it is also grammatically incorrect, as he should have said, “between you and me.” The use of “I” and “me,” especially when used in these phrases, can seem very similar, but they are definitely very different and we cannot use them interchangeably.
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