Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
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Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

I/Me function in brackets.

I recently came across a construction about which I’m unsure, as the construction makes the functions of the individual parts a bit unclear.

The sentence is, “Social players (and even me!) would be interested to know people’s birthdays.”

I contended that the text within the parentheses should be corrected to “(and even I)” considering one would not say “Me would be interested.” However, I was told that, in the above sentence, “and even me” functions like “you and me.”

I don’t see how that applies. Which is the correct construction, and why?

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Comments

In that case, "you and me" would also be incorrect.
The phrase "Social players" is the subject of the sentence, so whatever pronoun used would have to be in the nominative case, not the objective- I not me, we not us.

helena Jan-03-2006

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I don't know why "even me" would mean the same as "you and me", but even if it did, it would be irrelevant because "you and I" would be the correct usage here. I agree with Helena; I not me.

porsche Jan-03-2006

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I third that opinion.

Jon2 Jan-03-2006

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How can there be any argument, to this question!?
It's very simple to know where 'I' and 'Me' should be used. All you do, is complete the sentence, thus;
"Social players would be interested to know people's birthdays, and so would I!"

'Social players (and even me) would?'
Is this a joke?

mikeywalsh Jan-04-2006

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Another alternative would be to replace the incorrect "and even me" with "myself included." The only problem is that it would create the impression that the speaker is one of the "social players" (which may or may not be true).

Joe4 Jan-25-2006

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"Social players" or any other substitute for these words will always be the subject of this sentence -- no matter what. The subject is in the nominative form, so if we replace "social players" with the nominative form of "me," we use "I." "I would be interested to know people's birthdays."

Sara3 Jan-26-2006

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In response to Joe's suggestion, "myself" is a reflexive pronoun as in "I like myself." I was taught that it should never be used as a subject of a verb.

John4 Feb-09-2006

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