tag on pictures

Question

When I post a picture of me and my brother, is the correct tag" My brother and I" or "my brother and me"?

RandomGuy · Accepted Answer

Both work.

KJinCali79 · Answer

I'm of the opinion that only "my brother and me" works in this scenario.  If your brother was not in the photo, you could have a tag that said "me," but you wouldn't  have a tag that simply says "I."

Fivejedjon · Answer

KJinCali79 If your brother was not in the photo, you could have a tag that said "me," but you wouldn't have a tag that simply says "I."

True.

But the brother is in the photo, and we have a different situation.

RandomGuy · Answer

KJinCali79you wouldn't have a tag that simply says "I."

Nevertheless, my brother and I sounds perfectly fine—and you know it. This is because my brother and I and I are two different types of constructions, coordination and phrase respectively. It is commonly taken for granted that this difference is irrelevant to case assignment, but as it happens, there is another place in English grammar where the rules are sensitive to this distinction:

1. I don’t know if you’re eligible.
2. *I don’t know if she and you’re eligible.

The sequence you are can be reduced to you’re in [1], where you is subject, but not in [2], where the subject has the form of a coordination of pronouns (which function as coordinates, not subjects). This is clear evidence not only that a rule of English could apply differently to pronouns and coordinated pronouns, but that one rule actually does.

KJinCali79 · Answer

Aspara Gus—and you know it.

First, don't presume that I agree with you when I clearly posted otherwise for a reason.

Now, we don't have a full sentence here, so perhaps it is foolish to speculate over which is correct; or whether both are fine, which is the point you're making.

However, I take a tag on a photograph to mean, "This is a photograph of ___." As such, the item or person being tagged is the object, which could only be "my brother and me."

That said, yes, you could interpret the tag to mean, "My brother and I are in this picture," in which case "I" works; however, it seems to be ignoring what a tag is.

RandomGuy · Answer

KJinCali79First, don't presume that I agree with you when I clearly posted otherwise.

Your argument was based on a specious analogy. As a native speaker, going by your ear, do you really find the caption my brother and I to be unnatural English?

KJinCali79we don't have a full sentence here, so perhaps it is foolish to speculate over which is correct; or whether both are fine, which is the point you're making.

That isn’t the point I was making in my last post, but it is the reason I answered the question the way I did.

KJinCali79"This is a photograph of ___." As such, the item or person being tagged is the object, which could only be "my brother and me."

For some speakers, it could very well be my brother and I in that context. But whether that is treated as correct Standard English or not, it can’t be successfully argued to be ungrammatical simply by the analogy you’re using. That’s my point.

Grammarfreak · Answer

It depends on how you tag the picture. Both are possible. Tag 1: My brother and me fishing by the lake.
Tag 2: My brother and I were fishing at the lake.

KJinCali79 · Answer

Aspara Gus can’t be successfully argued to be ungrammatical simply by the analogy you’re using. That’s my point.

Really? Is I a subject pronoun or an object pronoun?

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