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Possible Duplicate:
Which is correct, “you and I” or “you and me”?
“Me and my wife” or “my wife and me”

Is this sentence correct "All I need is you and I " ?? since "All I need is I" seems not proper here whereas "All I need is you" does.

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SANTOSH KUMAR
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  • All I need is me, though grammatical, is a very odd thing to say. You might want to rephrase, though it's difficult to say without context. – Tim Lymington Mar 26 '12 at 13:11
  • I've been pondering upon a lyrics of a song named "without you" by Usher,I hope you've heard it already,but anyways,there is a part of sentence where "All I Need is you and I, without you" is used .so,is this sentence correct here?? – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 26 '12 at 13:27
  • When I said 'poets might be drawn' this kind of usage, I didn't have Usher in mind... – hohner Mar 26 '12 at 13:30
  • lol..alright..thanks a lot anyways...I'll keep it in mind regarding the usage of You and I. – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 26 '12 at 13:37
  • Anything goes with poetry and lyrics. – Mitch Mar 26 '12 at 13:57
  • @SANTOSHKUMAR: Are you asking in this case: "All I need is you and I/me happily married together."? – Bravo Mar 26 '12 at 14:01
  • @Shyam No,I was just wondering about the lyrics where "All I need is you and I, without you" is used.Well,seeing your example it has made me curious to know what correct word should be placed in here. – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 26 '12 at 14:07
  • @Mitch mhm..I see...hehe,which is why its fun,I guess. – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 26 '12 at 14:08
  • @Shyam I think it should be "me" instead of I as in "All I need, is you and me happily married together".? – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 26 '12 at 14:18
  • @FumbleFingers yeah true. – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 26 '12 at 14:20
  • 'I' is correct in that sentence. "All I need is you and I happily married together." – Bravo Mar 26 '12 at 14:22
  • Now I am once again confused ! – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 26 '12 at 14:26
  • @Shyam I searched many threads similar to mine and I found that with this type of sentences ,we always should remove the "You and" Part and see if the sentence sounds good or normal or not ridiculous.Like here,"All I need is me happily married together" which sounds nice as when compared to "All I need is I happily married together" SO,the correct sentence would be "All I need is you and me happily married together" – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 26 '12 at 14:47
  • I don't think is is a duplicate. The one question http://english.stackexchange.com/q/1047/13812 deals with objects, whereas the question here is about predicate nominatives. The other question http://english.stackexchange.com/q/48397/13812 deals with pronoun order, whereas that really doesn't have much to do with this question. – zpletan Mar 26 '12 at 15:04
  • @SANTOSHKUMAR: It is not about sounding good, the question is if we need a subject or object. Consider: "All I need is he and she happily married together." Will 'him or her' fit here? No. So we need a subject, which is "I". – Bravo Mar 26 '12 at 15:05
  • okay..so,what will fit here anyway?? – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 26 '12 at 15:25
  • "All I need is you and I happily married together" :) – Bravo Mar 26 '12 at 17:38
  • "All I need is for you and I to be happily married." – SANTOSH KUMAR Mar 27 '12 at 10:04

2 Answers2

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Although it's correct, as Tim has pointed out, it's also very unnatural. Poets might be drawn to it because it's a playful repetition which gets us to focus on the meaning.

When you use I, you're usually employing it in the nominative case because I is the subject of the sentence:

I kicked the ball

I walked to the shops

I am a keen cook

but when you use me you're generally using it in the accusative case because I is now the object of the sentence:

The star amazed me

Everything seems fine to me

Mary kicked me in the leg

Community
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hohner
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The sentence is incorrect. You can think of is as a sort of equal sign, where you can put the subject as a predicate nominative and vice-versa and the sentence will be correct. Breaking it down, then, the subject, predicate, and predicate nominative are:

All I need is you and me.
all | is / you and I
you and I | is / all (reversed subject/predicate nominative)

It should be (you could substitute we for you and I, if that helps to understand a bit better):

All I need are you and I.
all | are / you and I
you and I / are | all (reversed subject/predicate nominative)

With a single nominative, it should read:

All I need am I.
all | am / I
I | am / all (reversed subject/predicate nominative)

zpletan
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  • "Is" does not just function as an equal sign, and you can't just reverse the word order and get another valid sentence. Consider that "I am he" is correct, but "He am I" is wrong, and "It is they" is correct, but "they is it" is wrong. The form of "to be" agrees only with the noun phrase that acts as a subject; in this case, that is "all I need", and the grammatical number of "you and me/I" is irrelevant. – herisson Jan 13 '17 at 08:05