People regularly confuse I with me—or confuse me with I. Who among us stops to think, “Am I using this first person pronoun in the subjective case or the objective?”

But there are simple ways to remember how to use first person pronouns correctly.

First Person Technical

In case you’re interested, here are the technical details:

• Use I in the subjective case; as the subject of the sentence. “I ate ossobuco.”
• Use Me in the objective case; as the object of the verb. “That pesky armadillo chased me down the canyon.”
• Use Myself in the reflexive case;  following the noun that refers to it. “I cut myself with the cleaver.” (Let us not tackle the reflexive case just yet. Me and I provide us with sufficient trouble.)

Think Twice

When in doubt—and first person pronouns are champs at leaving people in doubt—quickly re-write the sentence in your head by removing all names and pronouns but your own.

If you’re ready to say “Me, Rich and Sergei went to the game,” take an instant to remove Rich and Sergei from that sentence.  You’re left with “Me went to the game,” which sounds stupid because it is. The correct pronoun is I.

But the sentence you want is not “I, Rich and Sergei went to the game.”

Use Good Manners

Always let others go first. It’s that uncomplicated. Instead of saying “I, Rich and Sergei  went to the game,” let Rich and Sergei  go first. “Rich, Sergei  and I went to the game” is good grammar and good manners.