One essential component of any good blog is to use correct language. Bad spelling or grammar will make your blog look cheap. Here’s a tip that will stand you in good stead for blog writing and writing in general.

Many of us have difficulty knowing when to use I and when to use me. Take for example these two sentences.

1. My son held a birthday party for my wife and I.
2. My son held a birthday party for my wife and me.

Which one is correct?
I think many of us, and myself included, would have said the first one. But in fact the second is correct grammar. Why? Because the pronoun me is, in grammatical terms, the object form – the “done to” part, whist the pronoun I is the subject form – the “doing” part.

But don’t let me bore you with grammatical rules. The simple way to test out what the correct form is, is to reduce the sentence down to just  a single object. In this sentence, the party was held for my wife and I/me. Remove my wife and you’re left with

1. My son held a birthday party for I.
2. My son held a birthday party for me.

The second – My son held a birthday party (for my wife and) me –is clearly the correct form even though in the sentence that includes my wife, the first sounds correct.

Now let’s look at it the other way round.

1. My wife and I held a birthday party for our son.
2. Me and my wife held a birthday party for our son.

Take out my wife.

1. I held a birthday party for our son.
2. Me held a birthday party for our son.

You can see that the first sentence – (My wife and) I held a birthday party for our son – is correct.

Strange language English isn’t it?