By Laura Payne
Him and me went to the store. Lisa walked by Nancy and I.
Do either of the above sentences sound a little off? They might to some but not to others.
Children often struggle with the grammatically correct usage of subjective and objective pronouns in compound subjects and objects. This is not surprising when you think about pronouns in terms of their linguistic labels. It might be easy for an adult to understand that when there is a compound subject, only subjective pronouns should be used, and when there is a compound object, only objective pronouns should be used.
One of the easiest ways to help children learn which form of a pronoun should be used in compound subjects and objects is to NOT focus on traditional pronoun charts, like the above. Instead, turn a compound subject into two simple subjects, and turn a compound object into two simple objects.
Him and me went to the store.
Not good: Him went to the store. Me went to the store.
Good: He went to the store I went to the store.
Therefore: He and I went to the store.
Lisa walked by Nancy and I.
Good: Lisa walked by Nancy.
Not good: Lisa walked by I.
Good: Lisa walked by me.
Therefore: Lisa walked by Nancy and me.
Here are some practice sentences:
My friend and [I, me] built a fort.
Your whining annoys Jake and [I, me].
[He, Him] and I made a pizza.
Mary and [her, she] stayed up all night.
I gave the cookies to Tom and [she, her].
About Laura Payne
A self-confessed language nerd, Laura Payne is the mother of two boys, and she is a part-time English teacher. She has also done freelance writing about several topics including the structure and grammar of English.
