‘Between you and me’ is best in this usage, because it’s between us, not between we.
‘Between you and I’ is an example of hypercorrection in an attempt to sound ‘more correct/more standard’ which actually has the opposite effect. Our schoolteachers, parents and grandparents maybe pulled us up on using ‘me’ instead of ‘I’ and while that may be applicable some of the time, in this kind of construction it’s not. We are left with the memory of their corrections and apply ‘the rule’ when it is not needed. The best way to work out if you need to use ‘I’ or ‘me’ with another pronoun is to substitute the construction with ‘we’—if the sentence still works, ‘I’ is your answer. If it doesn’t and you need to substitute with ‘us’ instead, it’s best to use ‘me’. Examples You can send the documents to Fatima and I. You can send the documents to we (us). You can send the documents to Fatima and me. ✓ Even spellcheck doesn’t like ‘to Fatima and I’. You and me need to talk. We need to talk. You and I need to talk. ✓ Again, spellcheck doesn’t like ‘you and me need’. Between you and I, it’s annoying when people are pedantic. Between we (us), it’s annoying when people are pedantic. Between you and me, it’s annoying when people are pedantic. ✓ Interestingly spellcheck doesn’t flag ‘between you and I’ as a potential issue, but it does flag ‘between we’. #WhyWeStillNeedHumanProofreaders
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6/24/2020 0 Comments Citizens + Civic SpaceAs the issue of citizens and public space becomes evermore fraught in 2020, here is my photo essay on the citizenry inhabiting civic space, touching the ground barefoot and shod, across Europe in 2019, when travel was possible.
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AuthorLife and language observed, sometimes through a lens. Archives
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