Unfortunately, I already deleted my two comments before I decided to write a blog about it, doing so in order that I would not receive any more notifications from the picture, because clearly nothing good was coming from it. I was only getting frustrated every time I was reminded of the event. But I will re-enter to the best of my ability what I commented so that you will fully understand the debate and situation.
groom and I
July 4 at 12:58am
thanks mom
July 4 at 3:56am
ELISABETH JONES: No Riley, I think you're right with the "groom and me", because if you left the groom entirely out of the picture, you wouldn't write "I" in the caption. At least that's how I think the rule goes. :)
nope, groom and i
July 11 at 8:00pm
i have to agree since my mom would correct me all the time on this, hence the "thanks mom" above..
July 11 at 8:31pm
ELISABETH JONES: "I" can only be used as a subject of a sentence, and "me" as an object. and in this picture, there is an implied "This is a picture of" in front of your caption, making you and the groom the direct objects. I'm not trying to be argumentative, just giving my opinion! :)
hahaha now son, it is "groom and I"
July 13 at 6:01pm
Elisabeth for how smart i know you are you should know this one, its one of those exceptions...
July 13 at 6:11pm
i think its Elisabeth i suppose to have a 'z' , not an 's' ... u might wanna check on that one too while you're at it ;)
5 hours ago
As you can see, the debate ended very tactfully! Personal attacks on something a person has no control over and completely irrelevant to the topic is very mature, and it only makes that person's stance on the debate that much more convincing. In response to Matt's comment: Elisabeth with an "s" is the original way of spelling the Hebrew name in the English language, and is still how the Dutch spell it. It is how the British spelled the name for centuries, which can be seen by opening up any King James Version of the Bible (click here for confirmation). Elizabeth with a "z" is the Americanized version of the name. I'm not arguing one as being better than the other, I'm just explaining my name is not misspelled! Other people who share my unique spelling: Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Elisabeth Elliot, Liz Claiborne.
But back to the point. I have asked 3 people whether "I" or "me" should be used in this situation, and all 3 have said "me". I gave my reasoning above as to why I believe it is "me", but the people arguing for "I" never backed up their claim with a stated rule or example. I searched online this morning for almost an hour trying to find the proper way to use "I" in a picture caption, but could not find a credible source (yahoo answers has no validity in my book). If anyone out there knows the answer, or would like the healthily debate this all-important linguistic enigma, please do so. I really want to know the correct way to caption my Facebook pictures!
But until proven otherwise, I'm sticking with "me".
11 comments:
you are right, hands down.
I agree that it's 'me'. The idea of just putting 'I' underneath a picture is ludicrous.
Unfortunately, the O'Neill clan has taken the common corrective statement, "[Subject] and I" and applied it where it doesn't belong. There is no rule that necessitates the use of 'I' just because you mention another person.
From Fowler's Dictionary on Modern English Usage:"Anyone who uses it [I] now lives in a grammarless cavern in which no distinction is recognized between a grammatical object and a subject. The same applies to the use of I as the second member of an objective phrase..."
Long way of saying, you are right Elisabeth.
After further thought, the title "The King and I" came to mind. And as I think we would agree the grammar here is correct, we would need to examine the differences between these two cases.
Ultimately, as neither is a complete sentence, I'm not sure if one option is entirely correct. But if I had to pick one, I'd still go with 'me'.
Definitely "me"... as you said you wouldn't label the picture "I".
trust your pooberoos! it's "me."
You are completely right about the caption of the picture. It is a shame that you were not able to convince the O'Neil clan about the error of their ways.
Ed, before I can trust a pooberoos, I need to know what one is. Can you please define?
due to popular demand, i record the following definition:
"poo" derives from the genus winnie of the pooh and "ber" from the species ursula, sub-species bear with the special identifier, "oos," indicative of the endearing connection between two "special" friends!
Because it is a phrase and not a sentence, there really is not a rule. If the phrase is short for "The groom and I at the wedding" then it should be I. If is short for "This is a picutre of the groom and me" it should be me. The latter seems more probable so "me" is a better option, but neither is definitely right or wrong since the phrase leaves the reader to guess what the whole sentence is. But my money stays on "me". I agree that insulting the spelling of your name is a very immature approach --- especially since they are wrong!!
You're right, Elisabeth. It's totally me. :)
But, while I'm at it, if you have a comma or a period with quotes, the comma or period goes inside the quotation marks -- not outside. "For example," like "this." :)
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