Kiss I, Kate

I just saw Kiss Me Kate, the old Cole Porter musical, and I was gratified to see Bianca grappling with our complicated English language.

“There is nothing between him and I,” she says — and then immediately senses it’s wrong. “I mean he and me,” she adds.

Which is also wrong.

How to choose between I and me?

My mommy taught me to subdivide the pair and try each option separately:

• “There is nothing between him.”
• “There is nothing between me.”

You wouldn’t say “There is nothing between I.” And you wouldn’t say “There is nothing between he.”

Each of the pronouns has to be correct by itself in order to be correct in combination. So it’s “him and me.”

(By the way, I’m pretty sure Bianca was lying.)