Sometimes a girl just has to blog about something that almost no one else cares about at all. Well, here goes. For awhile now I have seen, over and over, captions under photos that say, "Suzie and I at the party" or "My baby and I cuddling up on the couch." Every time I see it I cringe a little. It's like hearing someone sing "Happy Birthday" and never quite reaching the octave. But I really wasn't sure if I was wrong or not about this particular use of "I." I didn't have a rule to back up my hunches and I didn't know if it was grammatically incorrect or not. Now what I do know is that "between you and I" is incorrect. Alas, it is used over and over. I think somewhere along the line, people started fearing the "me" pronoun after being scolded for saying, "Johnnie and me wanna play at the park!" or some such thing. We know it should be "Johnnie and I wanna play." But sometimes "me" is okay! I say we get reacquainted with little ol' "me." Not myself. Not I. But me!
I have been storing up my curiosity about the "Here's Suzie and I" for awhile now. So what do I finally do when I just can't take the suspense anymore? I google it. So far, the research supports my hunches. If anyone is a grammarian out there, I welcome your input. For now, the curiosity has come to end. I am happy to announce that we can do away with "Suzie and I at the park" and confidently write, "Suzie and me" under our photos. It's the equivalent of saying, "Here's a picture OF Suzie and me" in which case we KNOW we would use "me" and not "I." Wow, glad to have that cleared up. If any of you made it to the end of the post, I am sure you are glad it is over, huh.
Till next time.
7 comments:
my first thought was that it should be me because the subject is implied...leaving you to use object pronouns. Wow, dyslexia school taught me something!
hahaha! actually, i have wondered the same and for some reason i like the sound of suzie and me better. it just sounds more personal. glad i can confidently say me now! :)
p.s. you never know who is interested. i feel like i blog about things no one is interested in at least once a week.
p.p.s. i'm sure i made many grammatical errors :/
i'm right there with you. thank you for making the world a little smarter ;)
I actually thought it would've been "Suzie and I cuddling on the couch..." I could definitely be wrong, but I would assume that it would be an implied 'are.' Suzie and I (are) cuddling on the couch, or "Suzie and I (are) at the party."
I only took a few grammar classes in college, but that was just my first thought. :)
Yes, I think I see what you mean, Olivia. But here's the way I see it: The problem is, when you post a photo of something and you use the word "I," you are essentially saying, "Look at Suzie and I cuddling on the couch." So you are making yourself and Suzie the object pronoun. But that is incorrect because "I" is a subject pronoun. Instead you should say, "Look at Suzie and me cuddling on the couch." So it makes sense that if you show me a photo, you would use the word "me." Just like you would also say, "Hey look at us!" and not "Hey look at we!"
The same goes for, "Your painting is so important TO Suzie and I." Instead you use "Suzie and me." In my (possibly inaccurate) opinion, the implied part of the statement for instagram and FB photos is the "Look at." No one says this on their instagram photos though. They leave off the words look at." Or "here you see. ." or "there are. . ." I am not sure if this is grammatical dogma or not, but it seems to make sense. What I do know is that "I" is a subject pronoun and "me" is an object pronoun.
You bring up a good point because what really is implied is "Look at" just like you said. I never thought about that. In my head, I'm putting a picture out there and just ignoring the obvious implication that I'm wanting people to see what I'm putting out there.
My English teacher always told me (in regards to full sentences mind you) if it is a subjective part of speech you use the subjective I, however if it is in am objective part of the sentence then you use the subjective me...that rule got me all the way through college English...I don't know about phrases though
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