Are 'Me and My Friends' Breaking Grammar Rules?
2021-03-12
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1Parents always have concerns about the way their children speak.
2Personally, I am unhappy when I hear my children saying things like,
3Me and Eric will be there soon.
4Now, I am learning that I should not worry.
5Over the past 20 years, English grammar teachers have developed some powerful new tools to learn about how people really use English.
6One such tool is the Corpus of Contemporary American English, or COCA.
7A corpus is a collection of language samples drawn from books, speeches, television programs and online work.
8Researchers use computers to study the corpus.
9The COCA website says the purpose of looking at this body of information is to find out "how native speakers actually speak and write" and how often people use individual words and expressions.
10As a result, the advice in grammar books has been changing.
11One of those rules is how to handle compound subjects.
12A sentence's subject is the person, place or thing that is doing something or being something.
13Some call the subject the "actor" in the sentence.
14A compound subject means more than one person, place or thing is doing or being something.
15They are joined with a word such as "and" to make the subject of a sentence.
16Some English language experts say that when you speak about yourself and someone else, you should speak of yourself last.
17Here is an example.
18My friend and I are going to eat lunch together today.
19and not:
20I and my friend are going to eat lunch together today.
21This is not an unbreakable grammar rule but is considered by many to be more polite than putting yourself first.
22In past Everyday Grammar stories, you have probably read about another rule related to this kind of sentence.
23That is, you should use the subject pronoun "I" and not the object pronoun, "me" when you are an "actor" in a sentence, as in this example.
24Andy and I will be studying English tonight.
25and not:
26Andy and me will be studying English tonight.
27One easy way to remember is to take the other subject out of the sentence. For example, you would not say
28Me will be studying alone tonight.
29You would say,
30I will be studying alone tonight.
31But the use of "me" as a subject pronoun seems to be growing more common.
32Mark Liberman is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of a language commentary blog called Language Log.
33Liberman says that researchers looking at COCA found that "me and someone" is "about three times more common than 'someone and me.'
34" Examples of the compound subject form "I and someone" are rare in the COCA.
35Here are some examples of this compound subject I found in COCA, with notes about their sources:
36Me and Joe Biden were going to be on this Sunday.
37(on a Television program with VOA reporter Greta Van-Susteren)
38Me and Kelly, we hang out. (on a television program, Without a Trace)
39So what should you do, as an English learner?
40You cannot go wrong by using "Someone and I" for your compound subjects.
41It is correct. But, if you break the rule, people will still understand what you are saying.
42We leave you with an excellent musical example of the "me and someone" form of compound subject.
43Here is Janis Joplin performing Me and Bobby McGee, recorded in 1970.
44Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose
45Nothin' - and that's all that Bobby left me
46Feelin' good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues
47Feelin' good was good enough for me
48Good enough for me and Bobby McGee
49I'm Jill Robbins.
1Parents always have concerns about the way their children speak. Personally, I am unhappy when I hear my children saying things like, 2Me and Eric will be there soon. 3Now, I am learning that I should not worry. Over the past 20 years, English grammar teachers have developed some powerful new tools to learn about how people really use English. One such tool is the Corpus of Contemporary American English, or COCA. A corpus is a collection of language samples drawn from books, speeches, television programs and online work. Researchers use computers to study the corpus. The COCA website says the purpose of looking at this body of information is to find out "how native speakers actually speak and write" and how often people use individual words and expressions. As a result, the advice in grammar books has been changing. 4Compound subjects 5One of those rules is how to handle compound subjects. A sentence's subject is the person, place or thing that is doing something or being something. Some call the subject the "actor" in the sentence. A compound subject means more than one person, place or thing is doing or being something. They are joined with a word such as "and" to make the subject of a sentence. 6Some English language experts say that when you speak about yourself and someone else, you should speak of yourself last. Here is an example. 7My friend and I are going to eat lunch together today. 8and not: 9I and my friend are going to eat lunch together today. 10This is not an unbreakable grammar rule but is considered by many to be more polite than putting yourself first. 11Object and subject pronouns 12In past Everyday Grammar stories, you have probably read about another rule related to this kind of sentence. That is, you should use the subject pronoun "I" and not the object pronoun, "me" when you are an "actor" in a sentence, as in this example. 13Andy and I will be studying English tonight. 14and not: 15Andy and me will be studying English tonight. 16One easy way to remember is to take the other subject out of the sentence. For example, you would not say 17Me will be studying alone tonight. 18You would say, 19I will be studying alone tonight. 20But the use of "me" as a subject pronoun seems to be growing more common. Mark Liberman is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of a language commentary blog called Language Log. 21Liberman says that researchers looking at COCA found that "me and someone" is "about three times more common than 'someone and me.'" Examples of the compound subject form "I and someone" are rare in the COCA. 22Here are some examples of this compound subject I found in COCA, with notes about their sources: 23Me and Joe Biden were going to be on this Sunday. (on a Television program with VOA reporter Greta Van-Susteren) 24Me and Kelly, we hang out. (on a television program, Without a Trace) 25So what should you do, as an English learner? You cannot go wrong by using "Someone and I" for your compound subjects. It is correct. But, if you break the rule, people will still understand what you are saying. 26Good enough for me and Bobby McGee 27We leave you with an excellent musical example of the "me and someone" form of compound subject. Here is Janis Joplin performing Me and Bobby McGee, recorded in 1970. 28Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose 29Nothin' - and that's all that Bobby left me 30Feelin' good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues 31Feelin' good was good enough for me 32Good enough for me and Bobby McGee 33I'm Jill Robbins. 34Jill Robbins wrote this story. Caty Weaver was the editor. 35________________________________________________________________ 36Words in This Story 37actually - adv. used to stress that a statement is true especially when it differs in some way from what might have been thought or expected 38polite - adj. having or showing good manners or respect for other people 39hang out - phrasal verb. to be or stay somewhere for a period of time without doing much 40What do you think of "me and someone?" We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.