nomconjobjs: between you and me/I

[Arnold Zwicky]

back in this thread, Jon Lighter claimed that "between you and I" had
virtually replaced "between you and me" (at least in certain
contexts).  this is wildly exaggerated, but there's a point here.

google searches on {"just between you and me"} and {"just between you
and I"] shows substantial numbers for both, but the second outnumbers
the first -- by a factor of 4.4 in raw hits, by a factor of 1.44 in a
"reduced" search.  (both occur in song titles, by the way.)

the number of hits for the second is jacked yp -- it's hard to tell
how much -- by a large number of *complaints* about "between you and i".

so, "between you and me" isn't really threatened, but "between you and
I" seems to be well-established in informal english.

arnold

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