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Should I use "He and I" or "He and me"

I know the correct one in this context is "he and I went to the store", but if I remove "went to the store". Which one do I use?

Can we combine Subject pronouns with object pronouns, e.g. He and Me?

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You can't remove the verb. If there is no verb, then there is no clause, and so no need to use subject pronouns.

You don't use "He" unless there is a verb. If you want to form a noun phrase fragment without a verb, use the object form "Him". Similarly if you remove the part "went to the store" you would use the object forms "him and me" as a fragment.

Who went to the store?

Him and me.

Now what if you don't remove the verb?

In nearly every real context you would say

We went to the store.

This is the real answer, everything else is just grammar speculations.

Compounding pronouns causes problems. Consider this: "He" is a singular pronoun, and yet "He and I" is now plural. Also "I" is a first-person pronoun, but "He and I": is that first-person plural, or third-person plural?

Native speakers would do almost anything to avoid this kind of difficulty.

In formal speech "He and I" would be correct. In informal speech "Me and him" might be uttered. "He and me" would be odd. It is neither formally correct, nor is it the casual use of non-subject pronouns when the pronoun is not the whole of the subject.

There are lots of ways out of this problem: Use "We" is very simple. or "He went to the store with me."

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  • +1 for just "say this some other way".
    – Ethan Bolker
    Feb 28, 2022 at 21:39
  • The correct answer to "Who went to the store?" would be "He and I". The verb is elliptical, but it still governs the pronouns.
    – Acccumulation
    Mar 1, 2022 at 1:47
  • Not if it an ellipsis of "The people who went to the store were him and me". But my point is that pretending that a verb exists when it does not any way to analyse grammar. And the rule "Pronouns in the subject have subject form" is quite simply not true.
    – James K
    Mar 1, 2022 at 6:08
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The easiest way is to separate the subject pronouns and see if they make sense. So "He and _ went to the store" becomes "He went to the store" and "I went to the store."

Correct usage would be "He and I went to the store."

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  • This is the way I use as well: works every time :)
    – taylor.2317
    Feb 28, 2022 at 20:29
  • OP is asking about what happens if the predicate is eliminated.
    – MarcInManhattan
    Feb 28, 2022 at 20:46
  • In that case, two possibilities: “He, I” and “He, me”. There are questions where the answer could be “he” or “I”: Who visited me yesterday? I can’t think of a question where the answer could be “he” or “me”.
    – gnasher729
    Feb 28, 2022 at 22:51
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When pronouns are connected in series, they should have the same case. They could all be in the subject case (e.g., "he and I"), object case ("him and me"), or possessive case ("his and my"). The case is determined by the series' function in the sentence. For example, in "he and I went to the store", the series functions as the sentence's subject, so the subject case is used.

If you only have a noun phrase (without a complete predicate), then practices can differ. Many people use the object case even when the subject case would seem to be more appropriate, especially in spoken English:

Who went to the store?
He and I. <-- Subject case matches "who".
Him and me. <-- Very common.

Note that English-speakers are often "loose" with pronoun case, so you might hear "he and me" or "him and I" even though they mix cases. I recommend avoiding those constructions, especially in formal writing.

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