A sneaky little grammatical error has crept in to language usage that drives me nuts! I've even heard President Obama use it. People don't seem to realize that using the "subjective case" of a pronoun after a verb or preposition, when combined with another noun or pronoun (e.g., Alex and I" or "you and I") is just plain wrong, wrong, wrong.

I'm probably fooling myself into thinking that people won't continue to use this "hypercorrection" in their speech, but please don't write it, especially if it's important writing you do for work or school. There's a simple method for determining which pronoun to use.

First, take a look at these two sentences. Only one of them is grammatically correct. Can you tell which one?

• Johnny gave some money to Brenda and I.

• Mother loves Kevin and me.

If you said the first sentence is correct, you would be incorrect. Here's a little trick you can use to tell which sentence is correct.

Take out the words "Brenda and." You are left with "Johnny gave some money to I." How weird does that sound? Just because you have two pronouns (or a noun and pronoun) after a verb or preposition doesn't mean that "me" somehow morphs into "I."

Try this trick with the second sentence, removing "Kevin and." What remains is, "Mother loves me." Perfectly grammatical!

Therefore, only use "I" when it functions as the "subject" of the sentence, for example, "I went to the store with Mickey and her."

• "I, he, she, they" are used BEFORE the verb, at the beginning of the sentence as "subjects" of the sentence
  

• "Me, him, her, them" are used AFTER a verb or preposition (e.g., for, to, from) as "objects" of the verb or preposition, except when the verb is a linking verb.