“My Family and Me” or “My Family and I”?

One of our fans messaged us via Facebook with a question, and we love it when this happens. So we took the time to write a personalized answer for her.

Here’s her question:

Someone corrected me recently for saying “I thank God for keeping my family and me safe.” They were saying it was supposed to be “my family and I,” but I don’t think that was correct in this context. Am I wrong or are they?

Our answer:

You are correct. There are some contexts in which “my family and I” would be correct and others where “my family and me” would be correct.

So what’s the difference?

It depends on whether the compound noun “family and I/me” is used as a subject or an object.

Remember, a subject does something, whereas something is done to an object.

Here are the subject pronouns: I, you, he, she it, they.

Here are the object pronouns: Me, you, him, her, it, them.

So:

My family and I are going to Disney this year. (The family does something).

But:

I thank God for keeping my family and me safe. (God does something to the family).

Do you have a language related question for us? We’d love to give you a personalized answer.

Was this explanation good enough, or is there something that you’d like clearing up? Let us know in the comments section.