"You and I" vs "You and me"

Learn the difference between "you and I" and "you and me"

Lesson Transcript

Hi everybody, my name is Alisha.

In this video, I'm going to talk about the differences between "you and I" and "you and me."

Let's get started.

First, let's talk about "you and I."

When should we use "you and I"?

Use "you and I" when it's the subject of the sentence.

So this means this expression, you and I, together, this acts as the subject in your sentence.

So let's Let's look at some examples of this.

First, "You and I have a lot of work to do."

"You and I have a lot of work to do."

In this sentence, "You and I" is the subject here.

We are following this with the verb "have."

"You and I have a lot of work to do."

Let's look at the second example then.

"Tomorrow, you and I have to go to a meeting."

"Tomorrow, you and I have to go to a meeting.

In this sentence, "you and I" is still in the subject position.

So subject does not always mean the first word in the sentence.

In this case, we have tomorrow at the beginning of the sentence.

This gives us some extra information about the timeframe for the information.

And then we have "you and I have to go to a meeting."

So in this case, we have this have to, which gives us the responsibility feeling for our verb go.

So, "tomorrow, you and I have to go to a meeting."

This is still the subject of this sentence.

Let's look at the last example then.

This last one is a very long example to show you how we still need to keep this subject position in mind.

So, "after the company chooses its new president, you and I are going to have to create some new policies."

"After the company chooses its new president, you and I are going to have to create some new policies."

So in this sentence, we have a lot of information, right?

This is a long sentence because we have two ideas, two ideas put together with a comma here.

So after this thing happens, then this thing is going to happen, right?

In this sentence, you and I, this part of the sentence, this is still the subject.

"You and I are going to have to create, right?"

So we saw "have to" in this sentence, right?

We have the same "have to create" and we have a future tense expression, "going to, have to create." This is talking about a future responsibility.

So, "you and I" is still the subject of this verb.

"You and I are going to have to create some new policy."

So, "you and I" is always used in the subject position.

Let's compare this now to "you and me."

So, when we use "you and me, we use it when it's the object of a verb.

So remember, the object of a verb is the thing that receives the action of the verb.

So let's take a look at this with some examples.

First, "the neighbors brought you and me a present."

"The neighbors brought you and me a present."

So in this sentence, "you and me" is the object of the verb brought.

So it's like saying, who received the present in this case, it's "you and me."

In this sentence, the neighbor is the subject.

So we have this part right here, which tells us who did the thing, who brought the thing, who brought the present, and who received the present.

So you and me is the object of the verb here.

Let's look at the second example sentence then.

"Our manager gave you and me a really exciting new project."

So in this sentence, we have our manager as the subject, the manager is doing the verb.

Yeah?

So the manager gave, right?

You and me.

Again, this is the object of the verb "gave" here.

So who received the project?

You and me.

So you and me are the object position here. This is the object of the verb "gave."

We received a really exciting new project.

Let's look at one more example now.

"The company president bought you and me an anniversary present."

Okay, so in this sentence, our subject is the company president, right?

Who did the verb?

The company president.

Our verb is "bought," right? Past tense of "buy."

And who received it? You and me.

Yeah? So we always use you and me when it's in the object position.

We couldn't say "the neighbors brought you and I a present."

That would be grammatically incorrect because "you and I" is used when it's the subject of the sentence. We couldn't do it here.

"Our manager gave you and I a really exciting new project," so this is not correct as well.

So we cannot use them interchangeably, but many people try to.

So how do you know then?

This is sometimes difficult to understand.

It's sometimes difficult, especially when you have a long sentence, right?

So here's a really quick trick that you can use to test your sentence and see if you've used the correct one, "you and I" or "you and me".

So here, test yourself, the last point for this video.

To see if your choice of "you and I" or "you and me" is correct, remove "you and" from the sentence.

Is the sentence still grammatical?

So what does this mean?

Let's look at some examples.

So here's an example sentence from part one.

"You and I have a lot of work to do."

How can we test to see if we've used the correct form, "you and I" or "you and me"?

Remove "you and." Here, so I crossed it out, yeah?

The sentence becomes, "I have a lot of work to do."

This is a correct sentence, right? Grammatically correct. So that means I'm right. This is correct.

"You and I" is the correct form to use.

Let's look at another example.

"You and me have to go to a meeting."

So if I remove "you and" from the sentence, it becomes "me have to go to a meeting."

This is not correct, right? It's "I have to go to a meeting." So we know "you and me" is incorrect.

Therefore, we have to change it to "you and I have to go to a meeting."

We practice this in part one.

Okay, let's look at another example.

"The neighbors brought you and me a present, right?"

So let's test, let's remove "you and" from this position.

"The neighbors brought me a present."

This is correct, right?

Grammatically, this is correct.

If we said, "the neighbors brought you and I a present," and we did this test, it would say, "the neighbors brought I a present," which is not grammatically correct, right? This is incorrect.

So you can use this test to help you decide which one is correct.

One very important point, however, the last point, this test doesn't work when a "be" verb is used.

So if you have a "be" verb in your sentence, you can't really apply this trick all the time.

It doesn't always work.

For example, you and I are going to have to, we saw this over here, you and I are going to have to create some new policies.

In this example, we have after "you and I," we have the verb to be, right?

In this case, are, I, are, this is incorrect, right?

You and I are going to have to, this test creates a grammatically incorrect expression, but you just have to remember, you cannot use this trick with a B verb.

If you're using a different verb, like we practiced up here, go crazy.

This trick can be used and it's really super helpful if you're ever not sure.

So I hope that this video was helpful for you and I hope now you understand the differences between "you and I" and "you and me."

And you have a good trick to use to help you make a decision when you're writing and when you're speaking, if you're very fast too.

So I hope that you enjoyed this lesson. Thanks very much for watching this video and I will see you again soon. Bye!

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