Co-worker asked me this. Not sure of answer. Any grammar help appreciated.
Bob and me.
Drop out the “Bob” and see which sounds right.
Me. Note what happens if you drop “Bob” from the sentence: thanks for giving me the time, not thanks for giving I the time.
Ninja’d!
Me never sounds right, but that is indeed the rule- take the additional person/people out, and ‘me’ is what keeps the sentence sounding correct.
A tangent. I received an email the other day that began, “I and Bob want to thank you yada yada yada …”
“I and Bob?” I was hoping for a second he was a rasta and he was going whip out an, “I and I,” on me.
Thanks to all for guidance!
‘Bob and myself’.
Nope. “Myself” is a reflexive pronoun and shouldn’t be used in that way. Grammar Girl link.
The one that always throws me is when it’s a possessive belonging to you and another person.
“The ball was Bob’s and mine” for example. Just grates on my ears, but I think that’s proper. (obviously it would be better if you said the ball was ‘ours’)
Which validates my writing teacher’s advice: “When in doubt, rewrite.”
I do hope that was a whoosh. “Myself” seems to be doing its best to drive the other first-person pronouns into extinction. Only use “myself” if you’re doing something to yourself. And if you;re doing something to yourself, I usually don’t need to hear about it.
“I and Bob” sounds funny because the convention is to name the other person firstm as in “Bob and I would like to see you”, or “Please come and see Bob and me”.
Yes – just say “me” when it’s grammatical. “Me” is not a dirty word (as in a thread I started years ago which I don’t want to unearth) and does not need to be replaced with “myself”. Don’t just “myself” because you aren’t sure if it’s “me” or “I”. “Please send requests to myself” and the like make me all stabby.
Yes – I was taught the convention is to put the other person first out of deference. The only time I violate this is when the order matters: “Let me or So-and-So know any issues”, meaning let me know and only if I’m not there, let So-and-So know.
I heard something along the lines of “John and I’s house needs work” the other day and URGH.
Yeah? Well, me and him don’t have a problem with it.
