me and I

Monday, November 3, 2008

People who, like my wife and me, are in the second half of life...

Is it right as is, or should it be "like my wife and I"?

The rule is that if it's doing something (which usually makes it the subject), it's I; if something's done to it (which usually makes it an object), it's me.

My wife and me isn't the subject, so the wording seems right as it is. Then again, it's not really having anything done to it either, so we're not 100% comfortable leaving it.

me is correct if it's following a preposition, but we're not sure if like is a preposition. We generally think of prepositions as indicating locations--up, down, above, below, around, near, to, from, at--not similarities.

So we look it up. It is a preposition. We leave it as is.