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Peter Martin
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Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
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Posted: 10 April 2026 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

A disturbing number of people can't even get a grip on whether to use me or I. This is not rocket science. It's your own native tongue!

Then you have the crowd who have an inkling they may not be able to choose correctly between the nominative and objective versions of the pronouns and think they can circumvent it entirely by using the reflexive pronoun 'myself' instead. Doesn't work like that!

That said, 'me' has generally been crowding out 'I' for a long time in many circumstances. Who, me? Yes you! Me too...

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Eric Jansen
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Joined: 27 October 2013
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Posted: 10 April 2026 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

In these days of endless texts, posts, and emails, I am always surprised by how many college graduates don't know proper grammar or how to spell common words correctly.
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Vinny Valenti
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Posted: 10 April 2026 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

"A disturbing number of people can't even get a grip on whether to use me or I. This is not rocket science. It's your own native tongue!"

---

And there's such an easy way to get it right every time. Just eliminate the other subject in the sentence and use that to judge whether "me" or "I" should be used. The same answer applies when the other subject is included. Definitely a pet peeve of mine when this simple rule is not followed.

"I went to the store" has the same usage as "My wife and I went to the store".

"My mother gave me a present" is the same usage as "My mother gave my wife and me a present".


Edited by Vinny Valenti on 10 April 2026 at 10:46pm
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Brian Price
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Joined: 26 June 2012
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Posted: 10 April 2026 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Thanks Vinny, I'd never seen that rule before.  Quite useful.
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Brian ONeill
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Joined: 04 July 2024
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Posted: 10 April 2026 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

A lot of social media 'story/anecdote' posts(especially on Reddit) will have someone describing the events of 'My [spouse/partner] and I's anniversary'. Or 'My spouse's and my...'
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 10 April 2026 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

What Vinny mentions is how I was taught way back when.
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 11 April 2026 at 12:58am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Same.

‘Course, I was also taught to spell color with a U!

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Vinny Valenti
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Posted: 11 April 2026 at 1:27am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

While we're on that subject:

I first learned about the British spelling of words when I got a Commodore 64 (my first computer) for Christmas '83, along with an expansion cartridge called Simons' BASIC. It was named after a British programmer named David Simons. He added new commands for sprite and background handling, and one of them was COLOUR, which changed the background colo(u)r of the screen. I thought at first that he had made a mistake. I pronounced the word in my head as "coloor", and I still do whenever I see the "our" used, even though I know it's wrong*.

*Very close to that same topic, my brain still reads "Simonson" with a short I, even though I've known that that's incorrect for decades now. Honsestly, "Sih-mun-sun" sounds more nordic to me, so it just seemed natural.


Edited by Vinny Valenti on 11 April 2026 at 1:31am
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