Between You and I vs. Between You and Me

Between You and I vs. Between You and Me Between You and I vs. Between You and Me Between You and I vs. Between You and Me By Maeve Maddox An ad for a new movie about the Hebrew exodus from Egypt shows Christian Bale as Moses–a character who has received a privileged and educated upbringing–shouting the words, â€Å"Something’s coming that is far beyond you and I!† I noticed because beyond is a preposition and should be followed by the object form me, not the subject form I: â€Å"Something’s coming that is far beyond you and me!† Note: The fact that English did not exist in the time of Moses is not relevant. A more commonly heard ungrammatical prepositional phrase is â€Å"between you and I.† This error is so common that it has its defenders. On a Slate post, podcast producer Mike Vuolo takes the position that correctness should be determined by what people â€Å"actually use.† He admits that â€Å"between you and I† contravenes the standard rule about prepositions being followed by me and not I, but claims that there is â€Å"a relatively modern theorywhich may undermine that rule†: Noam Chomsky and modern linguistshave a very persuasive theory that holds that in a construction like â€Å"between you and I, the entire phrase â€Å"you and I† is the object of the preposition and that for the individual elements within it the [grammatical] case becomes arbitrary. He mentions a quotation from Shakespeare to prove that â€Å"between you and I† must be all right. Note: For one example of between you and I in the entire works of Shakespeare, there are numerous examples of between followed by the object form me. The Bard’s one use of â€Å"between you and I† appears in a letter from Bassanio, the merchant from whom Shylock has demanded a pound of flesh: My bond to the Jew is forfeit; and since in paying it, it is impossible I should live, all debts are cleared between you and I. –The Merchant of Venice, Act III, scene ii. Shakespeare can teach us a lot about our language, but he’s not a reliable guide to modern standard usage. For example, in Julius Caesar, he has Antony say, â€Å"This is the most unkindest cut of all.† The most grammar-challenged modern speaker knows better than to double a superlative. Vuolo cites an academic paper written by two sociolinguists that identifies and labels three competing permutations of the between prepositional phrase: 1. between you and me, â€Å"standard usage† 2. between you and I, â€Å"polite usage† Note: By labeling this form â€Å"polite usage,† the authors encourage the false idea that the pronoun I is somehow â€Å"nicer† than me. 3. between me and you, â€Å"vernacular† The authors found that â€Å"the oldest people studied and those with the most education† tended to use the standard form. Participants â€Å"intermediate in age and level of education [less than a Ph.D.] favored† the â€Å"polite† version, whereas â€Å"youth and the less educated† used â€Å"between me and you.† The fact that between you and me was most common among the oldest participants could have something to do with the possibility that grammar was more effectively taught in the public schools in the past than it is now. As for youth and the less educated, good for them. They may be erring socially by putting themselves first, but they are using the correct pronoun case. Language evolves, including pronouns. I and me may eventually change places. Me is an object form, yet many speakers use the compound â€Å"Me + x† as a subject: â€Å"Me and the children went to the zoo on Sunday.† The first person pronouns I and me may go the way of second person ye (subject form) and you (object form): first they changed places, and then one of them disappeared altogether. Vuolo suggests that â€Å"between you and I† is far more common on the Web than â€Å"between you and me.† This may be true, but I wasn’t able to duplicate his search results. I did search the three phrases in the Google Ngram Viewer and found that between you and me is the clear winner in books–and has been for the past two hundred years. Time will tell. When persistent enough, nonstandard popular usage eventually makes its way into standard usage. For now, in this decade of the 21st century, between you and I is nonstandard usage. Related links: I vs Me Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:5 Uses of InfinitivesAmong vs. AmongstShow, Don't Tell