Conan's Corner: Just Between We

In a couple of comment threads on political blogs I read, other posters have asserted that the only people using whom these days are pedants and cranks. Conan wouldn't go quite that far, naturally, but he does bemoan the rapid slide of English toward becoming a two-case language. The nominative (I, you, he) and possessive (my, your, his, its*) are alive and well, but the objective (me, you, him) becomes ever rarer. While between you and I has drawn the derision of English teachers far and wide since Conan was a mere babe, nowadays people say things like "Do you want to go to the LYS with Susan and I?" — causing Conan to assume the fetal position and chew his own knees.

I think the mistake comes from memories we all have of being corrected from saying "Me and Susan are going to the LYS." There's an easy way to tell which pronoun to use: take all the names out. Remove Susan from both sentences, and you have "Me I am going to the LYS," and "Do you want to go to the LYS with I me?"

You will make Conan very happy.

And, speaking of happy people, Taz thanks you all for the kind birthday wishes.


He celebrated in style with ice cream with chocolate sauce and a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday."
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*Conan cannot resist this opportunity to point out that no possessive pronoun ever contains an apostrophe.