WordShop Ink

This blog offers spelling, grammar, and other word usage tips and information. Please don't get turned off because of the topic! You might find this interesting.

My rules and guidelines are double-checked, using the Chicago Manual of Style, Sixteenth Edition (CMOS).

Use “me” when the pronoun is the object of a preposition or object of the sentence, clause, phrase, etc.  Only use “I” as the subject of the sentence, clause, phrase, etc.

“Me” in Prepositional Phrases

• I think that comment should be kept between you and me.
• Just between you and me, I think Sally has a crush on Sam.
• The twin brothers danced with Sally and me.
• With you and me helping her, she will pass the test.
• Sally and George will play against you and me.

“Me” as the Object of the Sentence

• My friend invited George and me to dinner.
• Their snowballs hit Sally and me.
• Georgie wants to kiss Susie and me.

Here’s an easy test.  If you’re not sure whether you should use “I” or “me,” say the sentence aloud, dropping the other person/words to see which sounds better.  Use this statement as an example: “My friend invited George and me to dinner.”  You wouldn’t say, “My friend invited I to dinner.”  It’s easy to overuse the pronoun “I.”

This blog offers spelling, grammar, and other word usage tips and information. Please don't get turned off because of the topic! You might find this interesting.

My rules and guidelines are double-checked, using the Chicago Manual of Style, Sixteenth Edition (CMOS).

Web site or website? E-mail, e-mail or email?

Following the rules and guidelines of the sixteenth edition of the CMOS, we use the generic form “website.” Here’s a great example of how rules change according to usage. A few years ago, we used the formal form “Web site,” which has morphed into the compound word “website.”

Another change from years ago is “e-mail.” Not too long ago, electronic terms required the use of a capital “E,” thus “E-mail.” Now, many people informally, in e-mails and texts, omit the hyphen; but the correct usage includes the hyphen but omits the capital “e.” Who knows, though, what the proper usage will be when the next edition of the CMOS comes out, or when the next month rolls around?

Electronic terms are spelled and capitalized as follows: website, e-mail, the World Wide Web, the Internet, the intranet, the net, an e-book, the web and web page.

However, I can’t promise this will be so at the end of the year. Check this blog; I’ll keep you updated.