He and I, me and him
July 22nd, 2010 by Alan T
I know that the proper order for a nominative series of nouns including the speaker is “John and I,” but what about for the objective? “Mrs. Smith taught me and John,” or, “Mrs. Smith taught John and me”? The same goes for prepositions, “Mrs. Smith taught chemistry to me and John,” vs. “Mrs. Smith taught chemistry to John and me.”
Also, does whether one uses the objective pronoun or the reflexive pronoun affect the order? “I taught John and myself,” vs, “I taught myself and John.”
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If you have kids and own an iPhone, please check it out. It's $2.
I don’t think there is a proper order. I’ve heard some people say that you should put “I/me” last to be polite, but that has nothing to do with grammar.
Him and I, him and Me. The first sounds a little closer to my heart, prolly bcuz i grew up with upperclass parents. But I keep a good amount of mid and lower class company, so my english gets pretty balanced. I myself don’t really care, it just angers me when people say “him and I”. I’m thinking no, you’re a jerk, I’m not even gonna bother talkin to ya.
I think that changing the pronoun form from subjective to objective doesn’t change the inherent spirit of politeness of pronoun order- I/me always comes last, and the ‘guest’ (anyone not in the first person) goes first in the sentence order, to designate respect.
Re: “Mrs. Smith taught me and John” Personally, I would say that Mrs. Smith taught John and myself. I have always thought that English has a rhythm and you say what sounds correct!