Hi, Folks -

My thanks to the three Readers who have written in, all saying "to my friend and me" is the correct answer. :) That's how I would answer, also.

Reader Linda writes:

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Re: Which sentence is correct?

Greetings Hobie

In regard to your question

which sentence is correct??He gave the book to my friend and me? or ?He gave the book to my friend and I.??'

To ascertain the answer all you must do is remove the words "my friend". You would not say "he gave the book to I" . So there is your answer.

This works in all such sentence structures.

Sincerely,
Linda

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Reader k. writes:

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Re: Which sentence is correct?

Hey Hobie,

Hope all is well.

I would have said "and I", out of habit, as that's how I was taught - actually, come to think of it, I believe it was taught that both "I" and "me" would be correct in this case.

But according to this:

Link https://www.grammar.com/me_vs._i

"When do we use "me"?

"Me" is used as the direct or indirect object in a sentence and is always used to express the object of the message. A short trick to check if you should use "me" would be to ask the question "whom?" or "to whom?", or "for who"? If "me" answers any of these questions, than it is certainly an object and should be used in the sentence".

using "I" is incorrect, and using 'either' is also wrong. This authority convincingly asserts it should be "me" in this case.

Sort of late for this old dog. I'll try, but I can't promise anything at this late date. Good to know, though.

BTW, That's a pretty good, comprehensive grammar site^. Not the one that I can't remember the URL for, which was excellent. It was by a solo English prof, had "grammar" in the name (I think), had many articles in the "Which is right?" vein, and a robust & active comments feature. There's an explosion of grammar websites, it seems, so I couldn't find that particular one.

Thanks for bringing it up. Interesting to know.

Take Care,

k

P.S.: I just happened to catch that that article had a glaring typo [?]:

"If "me" answers any of these questions, than it is certainly an object and should be used in the sentence"

If they can't distinguish between then/than, I'm unsure about the caliber of the info.

The than-for-then error seems to be recent, but apparently has a large following; almost as large as there/their/they're and to/too.

Sorry for citing it :\

k

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A Reader (a writer, editor and language appreciator) writes:

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Clearly, the first sentence is correct.

The structure of the phrase, "...to ______", indicates that the form needed should be the object form "me", not the subject form "I".

The subject form is used when the first person subject pronoun "I" is the subject in the sentence, that is, doing the action in the sentence, such as:
E.g., I walked to school.

The object form is used when the first person object pronoun "me" is in the format of the being the object in the sentence, that is, on the receiving end of action, such as:
E.g., He gave the book to my friend and me.

Best regards,
A Reader

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