Keep making the same grammar mistake over and over again and if enough of us make the same mistake, it becomes correct. The rules of grammar supposedly adapt to real-world usage. Real-world usage aside, the pervasive use of "me and so-and-so" in our culture drives me a bit crazy!
It used to be, "George and I went to the store." Back in the old days of 30 or so years ago, if someone said, "Me and George went to the store," the listener would quietly come to the conclusion that the speaker was uneducated. Nowadays, turn on the television and the newscaster is saying, "Me and ... blah, blah, blah." Talk radio hosts say it. Even educated people such as lawyers and CPAs have embraced the "me and my client" culture.
I ran a little experiment while writing this article and found something even more frightening. I have intentionally included the "me and George" error and other grammatical mishaps in this article and ran it through Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar check. Guess what? It didn't even catch the errors!
Is this sloppy grammar just the product of a narcissistic "Me, me, me society?" Have we become sloppy? Or am I way behind the times and perceived as dumb because I am not using real-world usage?
Frankly, it's been many years since I suffered through a semester of grammar class. I can see or hear what's off with a sentence but do not know what the error is specifically called. So, instead of finding the right words and rules to explain it, here's the common sense rule that I learned back in second grade:
Take out the third person and see if the sentence makes sense. If you're saying "Me and George went to the store," keep George out of it and try this: "Me went to the store." Sounds ridiculous, eh? Conversely, split up the proper form and we have, "George went to the store," and "I went to the store." This is an easy, sure-fire way to figure out if your sentence makes grammatical sense.
Simple grammar tips aside, those of us who are offended by the constant "me and so-and-so" grammar can at least take comfort in the fact that pronoun variations such as "Her and me went to the store" or "Me and him went to the store" have not yet skyrocketed to the top of the common usage charts.
Well, now that this is off my chest, me going to the store. Maybe George wants to go, too.
Urbain Beck is a freelance writer who has authored numerous online and off-line articles and technical reports. If you are a writer and have been published online and would like to show off your writing, be sure to submit some blurbs at The Blurbosphere. You'll receive one-way links from PR2, PR3 and PR4 blogs at no charge. Visit www.blurbosphere.com for details.
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