Me vs I

[clifty_man]

My grammatical world just came crashing down.  I recently bought a new laptop with Microsoft Word 2010 on it.  I was using Word to write a letter, and I started a sentence this way:  "Will you draft up an agreement between **** and me..."  On proofreading it, I noticed the little squiggly green line under the word "me" that indicates bad grammar.

Comments

[slaymesoftly]

Word is written by programmers, not grammarians. :)

[willgrey]

To be fair, programmatically checking grammar in English, or any other natural language, is really hard. Word's grammar checker is pretty awful, but it's not because the programmers are poor at grammar themselves.

[sapphorlando]

Wow, that is an error all right, on someone's part. I might write to them, but if you do, try to find a reputable source to back it up. My own go-to is Strunk & White, but in my experience the business world holds Chicago (CMS) in the highest regard. The exception is journalism, which of course holds AP highest. I do not have access to either of the latter, but you could probably get help from the reference section of a good library; the larger libraries often do have such access.

Unlike many other problematic grammar rules, this one is actually pretty simple, and many will be grateful that the method of solving it is also very reliable.

To decide which pronoun to use in a sentence with a compound object or subject, merely break the compound into its individual constituents and try them each in the same sentence singly. This works because while people are often confused by the compound forms, almost everyone has the singular forms down, and the compounds are merely the aggregations of the singulars, following the exact same rules.

[deathjoy]

This is one of the best grammatical tips I've ever seen, thanks.

[periwinkle27]

I use it for who/whom also. If I put in a name and it becomes the subject, then I know it's who.

? wrote the letter?
Bob wrote the letter. Therefore, who is correct.

? should I vote for?
Should I vote for Bob? Therefore, whom is correct.

[the_maenad]

Some would cavil at your second example and insist that it should read "For whom should I vote?"

I personally favour shooting such people with an elephant gun, but just sayin'.

[diebirchen]

Yup -- what they said! In point of fact, the vast majority of people make grammatical errors regularly, and some go unnoticed by virtually everyone. Another problem that can come up with "me" and "I" is when the word ends a sentence in which some of the words are understood rather than stated.

E.g.:

Mary likes ice cream better than me.

This is correct if you mean, "Mary likes ice cream better she likes me."

Mary likes ice cream better than I.

This is correct if you mean, "Mary likes ice cream better than I do."

Really confusing and best dealt with by initially inserting the missing words, but confusions of this sort occur.

[sapphorlando]

Thank you! I knew I was leaving something important out.

[lariss]

The sad thing about this is that it is currently reinforcing the misconceptions of millions of Word users who use "I" because it "sounds good."

*shudder* The me vs I thing is sort of my kryptonite.

[diebirchen]

Such information, especially when put together by folks holding forth on something outside their area of expertise, is never a substitute for a solid foundation of grammar and, of equal importance, diction.

[snaky_poet]

*Shudder!* This sort of error is why I advise my writing students to disable Word's grammar check. It has told me the silliest things!

[cweb]

I actually made a list of all the incorrect things that happened while writing one document. Some of them completely blew my mind...

[cweb]

Here's a few of them...

Aside from the fact that I have to change it from American English to Canadian or UK English every single flipping time I use it, I used spell check on our employee handbook (it's a quick way to find all of the company names).
These are some of the annoying results:

If you are not comfortable advising the sender to stop sending these types of message, please contact your Manager or the HR Administrator for assistance.

Why, oh why, is spell-check wanting to substitute you’re (which is incorrect) for your (which is correct)?

Our general business hours start from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Why does spell-check want to change hours (correct) to hour’s (incorrect)

Expenses of a personal nature, like entertainment, grooming, gifts, etc. are things you normally pay for yourself, whether at home or away on business, and are not eligible for reimbursement

Why does spell-check want to change yourself to you?

Conclusion: spell check ought to be shot!

[daisho]

Apologies if you've already tried this*, but changing the language on normal.dot to your preferred variant should mean you don't have to change on every new document.

* I am aware the suggestion I am making doesn't always work.