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AbleReporter565 OP t1_j6l1rre wrote

Reply to comment by dr_xenon in ELI5: Why does the order of adjectives matter? by AbleReporter565

Only one is correct?!

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Caucasiafro t1_j6l29sz wrote

Yes "me" is for when you are a object of a sentence (the thing being acted on) "I" is for when you are the subject of the sentence (the thing doing the action)

Like

I hit the ball. (correct, because you are the subject)

The ball hit me. (correct, because you are the object)

Me hit the ball (incorrect)

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AbleReporter565 OP t1_j6l2p9i wrote

Took me a few reads but that actually makes sense, thanks

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breckenridgeback t1_j6l5mtm wrote

If you ever learn a foreign language, this is an example of grammatical case, which English usually doesn't mark (pronouns are the exception to that rule), but which a lot of other languages do on all nouns.

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neverfarts t1_j6la2gm wrote

Like in German, which has 3 genders (Grammatically speaking) and 4 cases. Each gender has its own version of 'a' and 'the' and these decline according to case, resulting in many possible combinations.

Bonus: the female Form is written as male in certain cases, just to keep you on your toes.

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Caucasiafro t1_j6lkx1t wrote

German cases and genders are so weird. For me the fact that die is both nominative and accusative feminine is the most confusing part. Somehow neuter staying as das makes mir sense.

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darrellbear t1_j6ldbpy wrote

Also, put others before yourself--it's not "Me and my friends went to the movies", it's "My friends and I went to the movies".

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f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4 t1_j6lysdy wrote

Easy to remember that if you're using the correct form, it still makes sense when it's split up.

My friends went to the movies.

I went to the movies.

Me went to the movies. 🤪

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breckenridgeback t1_j6l5km0 wrote

Strictly speaking yes, since "Joe and I" is the subject of the verb "went", "I" is correct (and English word order demands "Joe and I" and not "I and Joe").

"Me and Joe" is still very common in casual English speech, though.

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Aspy343 t1_j6le4cr wrote

There's a super simple way of checking this, and that's to just say the sentence without the other person.

"Me and Joe went to the park" becomes "Me went to the park", which clearly sounds wrong.

"Joe and I went to the park" becomes "I went to the park", which clearly sounds right.

A lot of people think "Come upstairs with John and I" sounds right because of the "I" but when you remove the other person it becomes "Come upstairs with I", which is clearly wrong, so it should be "Come upstairs with me".

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czbz t1_j6oleer wrote

CGEL says it's not quite that simple. The sentence does have the other person and we can't necessarily ignore that fact. "Keep Tom and I updated" is not necessarily incorrect.

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