i’m not sure if i’m just noticing it more lately, or if people are really doing this more, but i’m noticing so many people misusing the phrase so-and-so and i.

i think maybe they do this because they think it sounds fancier or more educated than just saying _________ and me. i think a lot of people just never learned when to use me and when to use i, or they got corrected so many times as kids (possibly by people who didn’t even know themselves how to use ’and i’ correctly?) that they just default to “__________ and i”

as in, “do you want to come to the store with bob and i?”

or “can you help dad and i bring in the groceries?”

so here’s the rule: take away the other person in the sentence and say it in your mind. see if it sounds right. that’s it.

“do you want to come to the store with i?”

“can you help i bring in the groceries?”

clearly not.

so in the above examples, you need the word “me”.

i could explain why, cuz i’m homeschool-y like that, but it’s really unnecessary. all you really need to know is the simple rule.

now go forth in knowledge. each one, teach one. spread the word.

oh, can we do a few more things as long as we’re here?

of course we can.

whom is not a fancier form of who. they have different uses in different places, which i’m not going to explain, because most people quite frankly could care less. so my advice? skip the whom, unless you can at least articulate which part of speech it is.

let’s talk about adverbs as adjectives: i’m sorry if this is sounding preachy and i’m getting long-winded. i know that someone who has extendedly not only failed to capitalize, but continues to make up words and massacres the english language at random intervals really has no right whatsoever to lecture anyone about english grammar. okay, your point is taken. so feel free to stop reading now.

for the rest of you who hang in there in spite of my obvious failings, i throw out these thoughts:

adverbs are to modify verbs. they give extra information about an action word. they often- alarmingly often- end in “ly”.

example: he ran quickly.

she drove slowly.

she blogged endlessly.

in each case, the adverb (the word ending in -ly and conveniently underlined because i’m so techy) explains how the verb (action word) in the sentence was done.

an adjective, on the other hand, modifies -gives information about-a noun ( a noun is a person, place, or thing- but not an action word).

example:

the house is red.

these sentences are boring.

this post is lame.

so, where do people get messed up? when they say things like the following:

i feel badly.

translation: i touch things poorly. the sensations in my hands don’t work right, and when i try to figure out what it is i’m grasping i always get it wrong. just the other day, i tried to crack an egg for breakfast but it was a giant boulder and i smashed my favorite frying pan into tiny bits because, gal dangit i just feel so badly.

it smells oddly.

translation: there’s something wrong with its nose. which is strange because i didn’t even know that a bag of grated cheese had a nose. but sure enough i opened the bag and there it was: a big crooked nose. it’s no wonder it smells oddly with a nose like that! perhaps it has a deviated septum? i wonder if they have special ENTs for cheese. i can’t decide if i should throw it out or auction it off on ebay. do you think there’s a market for it? maybe i should go back to the grocery store where i bought it and see if i can find another package with ears and collect a complete facial cheese set; i’ll bet that would fetch a pretty penny!

it is ugly.

translation:

it is ugly. that one is actually correct. i just wanted to see if you were paying attention ;)

so yes, this is what i spend my time thinking about when i don’t have enough laundry to do :)

and now i’m off to do some dishes before i create more havoc in the blogosphere.

have a lovely day.

and by that, i mean i day that is lovely (adjective)  ;)

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