[Them and I] or [Me and Them]

[Caulder Melhaire]

Alright, let's settle this once and for all.

WHAT IS THE PROPER GRAMMATICAL FORM?

Is it acceptable to say, "Stevie and I went to get some lunch," or shall the gods surely smite thee for not wording it as, "Me and Shannon went to the park?"  (Or perhaps being smote for my almost certain misuse of "thee" just then.)

This has come up several times in the last week and not a single person has agreed which was is correct.

[doublejay9]

I was always taught “Stevie and I” was the one and only grammatically correct way to phrase it. They were VERY adamant about that point. I know there’s an explanation for it, like what kind of pronoun “I” is vs “me” and which kind belongs in subject vs predicate. But it’s 10pm my time, I’ve got a lot of work to get done tomorrow, so I can’t be bothered right now.

[StarGirl06]

According to this link, it's both. answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100811181852AAImnAV&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKeCNLdNHQ11dB8TNzMljE1QrxshffNesnsBmwPBYxhAxPVGObSpgOgxw_hEOTHzOwq8v4kqOKB0VjS6a9EACCpf95jbrvuaexwvnunH6FuV7d-D3hkF294u0lMG892SH04PrqpiPh4D3PhvzGEWA76mTEhs0yUVcZYK6W0ZpYO0
Stevie and I is at the beginning of a sentence and Stevie and me is at the end. The examples where "Billy and me" on the link sound weird to me for some reason, probably because I've never said or written it like that, I would most likely use the "Billy and I" version.

(EDIT: I don't know how reliable/credible yahoo answers is these days but other sites do say the same thing.) 

[RAVENEYE]

The debate on Yahoo Answers is overcomplicating it. Though Aunty Joyce doesn't mince words and provides a straightforward answer:

Billy and I want an Answer.

An Answer was given to Billy and me.

Me and Billy is never correct.

Thanks, Aunty Joyce, whoever you are.


The best test to use to answer this question when writing or speaking is to remove the extra person and keep just the personal pronoun. This works for both subject and predicate pronouns. Thus:

An Answer was given to Billy and me.

"Stevie and I went to get some lunch,

"Me and Shannon went to the park?"

Performing this test shows that people who form sentences like the latter example are unknowingly causing themselves to sound like a DnD Orc with an Intelligence score of 1. Sadly, the majority of English-speaking humanity is gravitating in this direction. Anyone who says the human race is getting smarter as the centuries pass is not paying attention to reality.

Therefore, to rebel against this tragic trend, make a practice of performing this simple test during the editing phase or before opening thy mouth.

[Caulder Melhaire]

This is hilarious

That test makes it sooo much easier to figure out. Now I know I can accurately tell people off when they say So-And-So and me went to the store.