Me, Myself, and I

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a grammar quiz, and my ears have been offended quite a bit recently by misuse of I and me, so here goes.

Choose the correct word:

1. She invited Johnny and I/me to dinner.
2. He sent invitations only to Viggo and I/me.
3. Just between you and I/me, George is looking over here.
4. That bottle of wine is for Benicio and I/me to share.
5. You have no reason to distrust Denzel or I/me.
6. There’s no reason that Orlando and I/me can’t attend both parties.

Answers are in the Comments.

Comments

[Karen]

1. me
2. me
3. me
4. me
5. me
6. I

How'd you do?

[scott]

1. I
2. me
3. me
4. I
5. me
6. I

That's what my gut says, but I have little confidence in the correctness of my responses.

[steve]

I got them all! English majors unite!

I hear misuse of predicate complements all the time... the only worse sound to my ears is the expression "I couldn't care less" said as "I could care less."

... Oh really, so you're kind of middle-of-the-road on the subject?

[Kirsty]

I got them all right. You use what would sound right if you removed the other person's name from the sentence. So I had to guess number 3 ;-)

[Deborah]

I got them all right, too. I love it when quizes make me feel smart. :)

[scott]

Well I think you're all a bunch of smarty-pants nerds! :P

Seriously, this is why I'm a computer geek and not an English teacher. :)

[Susan]

I got them all because I grew up with a mother who constantly said "Not me and John, John and I" which led to the obligatory, "No, Mom, you aren't going, me and John are going." Really, this is one of my "fingers on chalkboard" peeves. Drives me nuts! And I hear it more and more often.

[Margaret]

I got them all. The first five are either direct object pronouns or objects of prepositions.
The last one is a subject though. Our administrators use myself ALL the time, and incorrectly. They do it to sound fancy, and I nearly lose my mind at staff meetings. (keep me in your thoughts tomorrow when we have one)

[Di]

I often feel that I am the self-proclaimed grammar police...and I'm living in an anarchy! No one cares about grammar anymore. I once wanted to start a business proofing text for businesses, web sites, etc.....I was going to call it Grammar Girl!

[Di]

Oh...almost forgot...if you like the whole grammar thing, be sure to read Woe is I by Patricia T. O'Connor!

[Karin]

I am currently frustrated about a grammar argument and your website came up in the search. I am living in Germany for a year as an au pair and my host father insists that he speaks better English than I do(even though his mother language is German). Apparently, I am incapable of speaking 'correct' English because I speak 'American English'. He says this to me as if that isn't offensive. :-) I would say 'My mother and I are having a discussion' he would say 'my mother and me' - am I right? or is British English THAT much different?

[Karen]

YOU are correct! He wouldn't say "Me is having..." would he? So why should he say "My mother and me are having..."? It doesn't matter how many people make up the subject of the sentence, you still need subject pronouns, not object pronouns. So, "My mother went to Germany" and "I went to Germany" and "My mother and I went to Germany" and "We [not us!] went to Germany." And no, the Brits don't misuse subject/object pronouns! Good luck trying to explain this to him...!

[tony trosclair]

I know this is an old post. I just found it while searching for something covering the misuse of "I" and "me". I think I've heard I used where me should have been used more often than the other way around and it drives me up a wall!!! People I otherwise thought to be intelligent show total ignorance while probably attempting to sound intelligent.