Are ‘Me and My Friends’ Breaking Grammar Rules?

Are ‘Me and My Friends’ Breaking Grammar Rules?

Parents always have concerns about the way their children speak. Personally, I am unhappy when I hear my children saying things like,

Me and Eric will be there soon.

Now, I am learning that I should not worry. Over the past 20 years, English grammar teachers have developed some powerful new tools to learn about how people really use English. One such tool is the Corpus of Contemporary American English, or COCA. A corpus is a collection of language samples drawn¹ from books, speeches, television programs and online work. Researchers use computers to study the corpus. The COCA website says the purpose of looking at this body of information is to find out "how native speakers actually speak and write" and how often people use individual words and expressions. As a result, the advice in grammar books has been changing.

Compound subjects

One of those rules is how to handle compound subjects. A sentence's subject is the person, place or thing that is doing something or being something. Some call the subject the "actor" in the sentence. A compound subject means more than one person, place or thing is doing or being something. They are joined with a word such as "and" to make the subject of a sentence.

Some English language experts say that when you speak about yourself and someone else, you should speak of yourself last. Here is an example.

My friend and I are going to eat lunch together today.

and not:

I and my friend are going to eat lunch together today.

This is not an unbreakable grammar rule but is considered by many to be more polite than putting yourself first.

Object and subject pronouns

In past Everyday Grammar stories, you have probably read about another rule related to this kind of sentence. That is, you should use the subject pronoun "I" and not the object pronoun, "me" when you are an "actor" in a sentence, as in this example.

Andy and I will be studying English tonight.

and not:

Andy and me will be studying English tonight.

One easy way to remember is to take the other subject out of the sentence. For example, you would not say

Me will be studying alone tonight.

You would say,

I will be studying alone tonight.

But the use of "me" as a subject pronoun seems to be growing more common. Mark Liberman is a Professor of Linguistics² at the University of Pennsylvania and founder³ of a language commentary⁴ blog called Language Log.

Liberman says that researchers looking at COCA found that "me and someone" is "about three times more common than ‘someone and me.'" Examples of the compound subject form "I and someone" are rare in the COCA.

Here are some examples of this compound subject I found in COCA, with notes about their sources:

Me and Joe Biden were going to be on this Sunday. (on a Television program with VOA reporter Greta Van-Susteren)

Me and Kelly, we hang out. (on a television program, Without a Trace)

So what should you do, as an English learner? You cannot go wrong by using "Someone and I" for your compound subjects. It is correct. But, if you break the rule, people will still understand what you are saying.

Good enough for me and Bobby McGee

We leave you with an excellent musical example of the "me and someone" form of compound subject. Here is Janis Joplin performing Me and Bobby McGee, recorded in 1970.

Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose

Nothin' – and that's all that Bobby left me

Feelin' good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues⁵

Feelin' good was good enough for me

Good enough for me and Bobby McGee

Words in This Story

actually – adv. used to stress that a statement is true especially when it differs in some way from what might have been thought or expected

polite - adj. having or showing good manners or respect for other people

hang out – phrasal verb. to be or stay somewhere for a period of time without doing much

1 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

2 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 commentary   

n.评论，评注；实况广播报导，现场口头评述

参考例句：

• He is giving the commentary on the basketball game.他正在对篮球赛作评论。
• His running commentary on the football match was excellent.他对这次足球赛所作的实况报道十分精彩。

5 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。