I or Me? Using the Correct Pronoun
May you be enjoying lots of love—in all its forms—this weekend!
Let’s talk pronouns: The concept of when and where to use which case of pronoun is not necessarily complicated but does need some explanation. We touched on this topic in “Hypercorrectness,” but we’ll dig in deeper today. And for guidance specifically on reflexive pronouns, such as “myself” and “themselves,” check out “Me, Myself, and I.”
First, know that there are different forms, or cases, of pronouns: subjective, objective, and possessive. Don’t get scared by the names. The subjective pronouns are the subjects of the sentence. Like any other subject, they are the ones doing the action:
He and she are in a field.
The boys and we girls are going hiking.
You and I look great today.
Who is in love?
The objective pronouns are the objects of the sentence. They have the action done to them, or they come after the preposition:
Between you and him, there is no loser.
The coach let them and me start practicing early.
The white outfits look great on him and her.
Whom does the girl love?
To whom did the teacher give the award?
The possessive pronouns own something. As we discussed before, possessive pronouns never get an apostrophe:
The dog ate its dinner.
Both his and her opinions are valid.
That roped-off lanes are theirs.
One easy way to slip up is when we have multiple subjects or objects, such as those connected by the conjunctions “and” or “or,” as in many of the examples above. However, a good English teacher should have taught you a trick to determine the correct pronoun, especially for writing: To figure out which pronoun to use, in your head, get rid of one of the pronouns plus the conjunction to know if you are using the correct remaining pronoun.
Using the bullet 2 example from the subjective pronouns, in your mind, take out “The boys and”: The boys and “we girls are going hiking.”
Using bullet 2 from the objective pronouns, in your mind, first take out “and me”: “The coach let them and me start practicing early.” Then take out “them and”: “The coach let them and me start practicing early.
And one last note for anyone confused with “who” and “whom.” “Who” is subjective case, and “whom” is the objective case. Thus, if you’re unsure, replace the word with a pronoun that would have a sex, such as “he” or “she” (subjective case) or “him” or “her” (objective case):
Who is in love? He is in love. OR Him is in love. <The latter is incorrect.>
Whom does the girl love? The girl loves he. OR The girl loves him. <This time, the former is the one that’s wrong.>
As you may be tired of hearing me say, A New Heart launched in December. Please consider leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads for this book and any of the other three in the series.
And check out some marketing blogs I did on other romance-writer pages for the launch: Liz Flaherty’s Writer Monday and Nan Reinhardt’s Author Spotlight.
As always, please comment on this blog or offer some ideas for future blogs (or comment on Liz’s on Nan’s blogs — always fun to get a dialogue going).