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This is different from some other questions since this is about the usage of "X and me/I" in captions/headlines when it is followed by a gerund (verb+(-ing)) instead of in regular sentences.

This makes the sentence a sentence fragment instead of a regular sentence in which it would be perfectly clear whether to use 'me' or 'I' ('me' - object; 'I' - subject).

These sentence fragments contain ellipses and so it is not apparent whether 'me/I' is an object or a subject.

Consider:

Patton and I having a last-minute brawl before the show.

So it is clearly a sentence fragment (a caption), and it is not apparent whether we should use 'I/me' as a subject or an object.

Here's what the user Quiveria said in the comments of this blog:

As-is, the sentence is a fragment. Either it is missing a subject or an auxiliary verb. Two ways in which the sentence could be completed are:

1: “This is a picture of Patton and me having a last minute brawl before the show.”

2: “Patton and I are having a last minute brawl before the show.”

Either way, this is Schrödinger’s Cat. Both me and I could be correct until someone confirms what the person who created the sentence [OP] originally meant to say. You could argue that, as a caption, the first one (1) /should/ be what OP meant, but that doesn’t change the reality of what OP actually meant to say. The question is the mechanics of the sentence as OP meant it, not which sentence OP should have used to fit the classical style of proper photo-captioning.

Is he correct?

Is using 'me' in these cases really the "the classical style of proper photo-captioning"?

I've seen this somewhat answered here and the answerer suggests it's a matter of style and that 'me' seems better, but doesn't, unlike Quiveria, call using me "the classical style of proper photo-captioning".

Edit: I've decided to post it to EL&U.SE as well.

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  • Is there really a reference for "proper photo-captioning"?
    – user3169
    Feb 16, 2015 at 3:59
  • @user3169 See the last sentence of what Quiveria said.
    – user26486
    Feb 16, 2015 at 4:12
  • I meant is there such a reference defining "proper photo-captioning", not whether he wrote it or not.
    – user3169
    Feb 16, 2015 at 4:14
  • FYI posting the exact same question on both sites is something I've noticed that SE takes a dim view of.
    – user6951
    Apr 17, 2015 at 6:42

1 Answer 1

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1: “This is a picture of Patton and me having a last minute brawl before the show.”

is OK. me is used because it is in prepositional phrase, of Patton and me.

2: Patton and I are having a last minute brawl before the show.

is also OK. I is used as it is in the subject.

The original phrase:

Patton and I having a last-minute brawl before the show.

is OK if you think of it as:

(In this photo is) Patton and I having a last-minute brawl before the show.

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  • 1
    In this photo are*. I'm not asking whether both (1) and (2) are correct - of course they are correct. And you then just said that you can think of the sentence as (2) and thus you can write it as "I". And yet you said (1) is also fine, so why not "me"? And is using 'me' in these cases really the "the classical style of proper photo-captioning". You didn't answer any of the questions and said nothing new.
    – user26486
    Feb 16, 2015 at 4:06
  • @user314- I think the point is: If you prefer people to interpret your full caption as: "This is a picture of Patton and me having..." then use "Patton and me having..." if, on the other hand you would prefer people to interpret your caption as, "Patton and I are having..." then use, "Patton and I having..." The choice is yours.
    – Jim
    Feb 16, 2015 at 4:38
  • @Jim This is a part of what Quiveria said.
    – user26486
    Feb 16, 2015 at 5:00

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