Me And…

I was rereading over my post The Bull Who Bruised Me, and I caught this sentence in it:

“Or, maybe it is, but not me and Steph’s friend.”

I have a family friend who is a bit of a grammar nut, but not the good kind of grammar nut, and here’s why: she incorrectly corrected everyone.

Any time a sentence contained the phrase “me and,” she would retort with “it’s [other person’s name] and I.”

The problem is that this isn’t always correct.

Let’s look at the statement I originally wrote in that blog post, for instance.

It’s not made for a male and female to ride it…  Or, maybe it is, but not me and Steph’s friend.

So, according to my family friend, it should be “It’s not made for a male and female to ride it…  Or, maybe it is, but not Steph’s friend and I.”

Leaving out the fact that it took away the emphasis on the bull riding not including Steph’s friend, if we take out the “male” and “Steph’s friend,” we’d be left with “It’s not made for a female to ride it…  Or maybe it is, but not I.”

That makes no sense.  It’s still “Or maybe it is, but not me.”

I hate grammar nuts who don’t pay attention to the correct grammar in the first place.  At that point, it just sounds pretentious.

In any case, “Common Errors in English Usage” says it best, so definitely read their short article.