After a break for the holidays, let's get back into the grammar business. Lately, I've noticed how many people say "I" instead of "me" in the following type of sentence construction:
"Our daughter gave a gift to my husband and me."
I think the confusion comes from those times when we were kids and said, "Can me and Billy go to the store?" Our mothers patiently (or maybe not so patiently) corrected us: "May Billy and I go to the store?" We got it drummed into our heads that the correct form always uses "I." But that's not true. In some cases, it should be "me."
This is the way I remember it: take out the other person's name. You wouldn't say, "Our daughter gave a gift to I." You'd say, "Our daughter gave a gift to me." On the other hand, if you turn it around, you'd say, "My husband and I gave a gift to our daughter." It all depends on how the phrase is used.
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