Between You and "I", Hypercorrection Makes Me Cringe

(15 Feb 2008)

Grammar Lessons Learned?

To many, the grammaticality of the following sentence should, on the surface, seem obvious from the constant admonitions of their most wise English teachers:

1a) Aunt Helga brought my sister and I many souvenirs from her last trip.

That should please the grammar Nazis, should it not?  So many of us had it beaten into us, perhaps to the point of experiencing severe emotional trauma, that we should use phrases like "my sister and I" rather than the more intuitive "me and my sister", that we do so blindly without considering the underlying rationale.  Consider an alternative: 

1b) Aunt Helga brought my sister and me many souvenirs from her last trip.

Hypercorrection: A Little Bit of Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing

(To be continued...)