Nehszriah here! Yup, I’m back again Brilliant, eh? Anyways, I want this one to be short, so please forgive if you were expecting some spectacular show. Getting the inspiration to write can be... well... less than simple when it comes to my brain.
I also apologize if this has any errors. I'm rather rushed at the moment, but won't break a promised posting!
I, Me, Him, Her, What?
Now ask yourselves what would cause a English teacher to cringe in this next sentence:
Me and John went to the movies yesterday to see the new Pixar flick.
I know that I would have been verbally lambasted by either my mother or a teacher had I believed that sentence to be wholly correct. The problem is not tense or passive voice or anything like that. The problem lies in the main subject: me and John.
When speaking, it is human nature to put one’s self first when speaking. This results in noun groups such as “me and John” to be commonplace. This is, in writing, incorrect when speaking in the first person. Put the other person (or persons) first, as if you were holding open the door for him/her.
John and me went to the movies yesterday to see the new Pixar flick.
Sentence done? Well, not quite. The noun grouping of “John and me” still needs work. How, you ask? The sentence should be written as:
John and I went to the movies yesterday to see the new Pixar flick.
Do I sound like your mother yet? It may seem petty at first, but it really has to do with the flow of a sentence. If you take out the second party (in this case John), your sentence should still make sense if you say it aloud. If you say “me went to the movies” it sounds silly, right? This method of checking your sentences works most of the time.
Original: I still do not understand how Koenma and me were able to blend into the crowd.
Correction: I still do not understand how Koenma and I were able to blend into the crowd.
Test: I still do not understand how I was able to blend into the crowd.
Original: Sascha, me and Chloe enjoyed the Bleach movie very much.
Correction: Sascha, Chloe and I enjoyed the Bleach movie very much.
Test: I enjoyed the Bleach movie very much.
In some sentences, you are definitely going to have to change some of the other words in order to have tense agreement when testing your sentences. With the first example, were had to be changed to was in order to agree with the pronoun. It is supposed to do with number agreement–I think. Hey, I am unable to diagram a sentence for the life of me but when it comes to picky stuff like this, I’m rather annoying.
An Exception
We split up into groups; I took Patty to scour the field, while Sonny went with Val and Groovy the Dog to search the cave.
Now, the above sentence is an example of using the pronoun I before another person’s name and still be correct. One could rewrite this many different ways so that end with the I being after Patty, Sonny, Val and Groovy the Dog, yet it is fine the way it is. How come? The speaker took Patty to scour the field instead of joining her in the act. If you remove Patty’s name from the sentence, it no longer makes sense. The sentence is built specifically to do this, adding flavor to a regular her, him and I sentence.
The Point of This Rant
This all may seem rather trivial, but sorting out things like naming order generally can improve the flow of a paper, blog post, fan fiction or letter. This, in turn, can separate the screw-offs from those who mean business. You want your essay or resume to look as polished and professional, right? This is the real world, where you are not always just hanging with your buddies. Putting your existence before others can come off as rude and conceded... not exactly the best quality future employers are looking for.
Try It!
Take a personal blog post and run through to see how many times you have to use the correction and test method shown above. Are your mistakes in word order, numbering, the usage of I/me or is it perfect in this aspect? Have no personal blog to ransack? Take a favorite fan fiction and analyze the first-person accounts of group activities. Do the characters order the lists in a certain way, and if so, does it somewhat impact the character’s “voice”? Does changing the way this character (ab)uses this bit of grammar change them for the better or worse?
