Substance and Style

• Publication year: 2020
• Pages: 59
• Citation: Vol. 89 No. 6 Pg. 59

Substance and Style No. 89 J. Kan. Bar Assn 6, 59 (2020) Kansas Bar Journal August, 2020

July 2020

I Want to Talk About Me ^[1]

by Emily Grant

When I was in first grade, a classmate would participate in show-and-tell with a story that started "my brother and me went." Every time, I would raise my hand and politely point out to the teacher and my classmate that he should have said "my brother and I went."^[2]

Now, far (far) beyond first grade, the rich irony is that I consistently misuse personal pronouns in one distinct setting: "Mom gave it to my brother and I," I say every time, when it should be "to my brother and me." I know my use is incorrect, but I can't shake the notion that "my brother and me" just feels wrong.

No more. I have read and internalized the rules for using personal pronouns, including the often-confusing "myself." I am reformed, and I share these rules with you so that you can make it through show-and-tell without the pig-tailed girl in the front row^[3] calling you out on your pronouns.

Nominative case personal pronouns (I, we, you, he, she, it)—These pronouns serve as the subject of a verb. "I drafted the brief" When there is a double subject, the pronoun comes second: "Michelle and I drafted the brief." Not "I and Michelle drafted the brief" And like my first grade classmate was frequently reminded,^[4] "me" is not an appropriate pronoun for the subject of a sentence, even in cases where there is a double subject. You would not say, for example "Michelle and me drafted the brief," any more than you would say "me drafted the brief."

Objective case personal pronouns (me, us, you, him, her, it)—These pronouns are objects, either direct or indirect objects of a verb or objects of a prepositional phrase. "Carl gave me the assignment." "Carl gave the assignment to me." If there's a double object, the pronoun and the other object can go in any order: "Carl gave the assignment to Stacy and me" or "Carl gave the assignment to me and Stacy."

Reflexive case personal pronouns (myself, ourselves, yourself, himself, herself, itself)—These pronouns are never subjects of a sentence; they can only be objects, but they are objects that refer back to the subject. So you would use these pronouns when the person of the pronoun is also the subject of the sentence: "'The foreperson chose to speak for herself." In that sentence, "herself" refers to the jury foreperson, who is also the subject of the sentence. Or "I was...