1071. Is it "Taylor and I" or "Taylor and me"? We explain why photo captions follow their own grammar rules. Then, we explore the subtle difference between "immigrate" and "emigrate," how the terms are used historically, and why their meanings often depend on perspective.
1071. Is it "Taylor and I" or "Taylor and me"? We explain why photo captions follow their own grammar rules. Then, we explore the subtle difference between "immigrate" and "emigrate," how the terms are used historically, and why their meanings often depend on perspective.
The "photo captions" segment is by Karen Lunde, a former Quick & Dirty Tips editor and digital pioneer who's been spinning words into gold since before cat videos ruled the internet. She created one of the first online writing workshops, and she's published thousands of articles on the art of writing. These days, she leads personal narrative writing retreats and helps writers find their voice. Visit her at ChanterelleStoryStudio.com.
The "immigration" segment was by Brenda Thomas, a freelance writer who enjoys writing about a variety of topics in the humanities and education.
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Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language. Today, we're going to talk about writing photo captions and whether you really know the difference between the words "immigrate" and "emigrate."
by Karen Lunde
This question comes from a listener. Linda said:
I'd like to see tips that address correct pronoun usage in social media captions. For example, if I caption a photo on a social media platform, I might type in: Taylor Swift and me.
Many people, however, would type in: Taylor Swift and I.
I use "me" under the assumption that the unwritten words preceding the caption would be: [This is a photo of] Taylor Swift and me.
Well, you're right, Linda! Choosing between "me" and "I" in photo captions is trickier than it seems. As you noticed, a lot of people might default to writing "Taylor Swift and I," but "Taylor Swift and me" is actually correct.
The key to solving this grammar puzzle lies in understanding how subjects and objects work in English sentences. Think of subjects as the star performers in your sentence — they're the ones doing the action. Objects, on the other hand, are on the receiving end of the action, or they come after prepositions like "of," "to," or "with."
When we use pronouns like "I" and "me," we're making a choice based on whether we need a subject or an object. "I" is what we call a subject pronoun — it's for when we're the one doing something. "Me" is an object pronoun — we use it when we're receiving the action or following a preposition.
So, let's take a look at some examples:
Now, here's where Linda's insight about photo captions comes in. When we write a caption like "Taylor Swift and me," we're actually creating a shortened version of a complete thought: "[This is a photo of] Taylor Swift and me." Those unstated words at the beginning — "This is a photo of" — are important because they contain the preposition "of." Since "me" is the object of this implied preposition, it's the correct choice.
And here's something interesting! People who write the incorrect "Taylor Swift and I" may not be using correct grammar, but they are giving us a perfect example of something linguists call hypercorrection — in other words, being so worried about making a grammar mistake that we end up making a different one. Many of us learned this habit because we heard constant corrections growing up, like: "It's not 'Me and Taylor went to the store,' it's 'Taylor and I went to the store.'" These corrections stick with us, creating a sort of linguistic anxiety where "I" feels safer or more proper than "me."
A good trick to figure out which pronoun to use is to swap their position in your sentence and see if things still make sense in your implied sentence. So, let's say you wrote: "Taylor Swift and I," as in "This is a photo of Taylor Swift and I." If you swapped the noun and pronoun, you'd have "This is a photo of I and Taylor Swift." That sounds wrong, doesn't it? When "I" sounds wrong when it comes first, then use "me" in your sentence instead.
But here's a rule you should stick to if you want to be proper: Taylor Swift comes first! (Swifties will agree, I'm sure.) The traditional rule says we should put others before ourselves — so "Taylor Swift and me" rather than "me and Taylor Swift." This isn't just about grammar; it's what linguists call a "politeness convention." It's like holding the door open for someone — a small gesture that shows consideration for others.
While we're on the subject, let's talk about a few other glitches people run into when they're writing captions.
Have you noticed how photo captions often drop words like "the" and "a"? Like writing "Dog chasing ball" instead of "A dog chasing a ball"? This style, sometimes called "headlinese," comes from newspaper caption traditions. With print newspapers, space was precious. But online and on social media, we have more room to play. So, using articles can make captions feel more natural and conversational. Go right ahead!
Here's another head-scratcher: Should you write "At Central Park" or "In Central Park"? The choice of preposition actually depends on how you're thinking about the space. "At" suggests a point on a map, while "in" implies being inside the boundaries of a place. If you say "At Central Park," it seems like you're saying you've arrived there. But "In Central Park" implies that the photo was taken while you were spending some time in the park. Both versions are correct, but they can sometimes paint a slightly different picture in our minds.
Now, what about when you're posting throwback pics? Should you write "In Paris last summer" or "Last summer in Paris"? Both are correct, of course, but there's a little room for nuance here. Put Paris first if you want to emphasize the place itself, or put "summer" first if you want to highlight that traveling to Paris was something you've done in the past. Perfect for those hashtag-Throwback-Thursday posts!
So, there you go! A few simple grammar guidelines to help you caption your photos like a pro.
That segment was by Karen Lunde, a career writer and editor. In the late '90s, as a young mom with two kids and a dog, she founded one of the internet's first writing workshop communities. These days, she facilitates expressive writing workshops, both online and off. Find her at chanterellestorystudio.com.
by Brenda Thomas
So you finally get it squared away in your thinking, writing, and speaking that the word "immigrate" means to go into a new country to live, and the word "emigrate" means to exit a country to go live somewhere else. Grammarians often teach that people either immigrate to or emigrate from, but they do not immigrate from or emigrate to. They point to the beginning vowel of each word as a way to remember which word to use. "Immigrate" starts with I and so does the word "in." "Emigrate" starts with E and so does the word "exit." It all seems so very cut and dried until it isn’t.
If you are searching for information about ancestors who came to the United States from other countries in the late 1800s to mid-1900s, you might find a document called a Declaration of Intention. That document is often referred to as “first papers” because it was one of the first forms a person submitted to become a U.S. citizen.
After finding such a document, you excitedly start reading your ancestor’s Declaration of Intention that gives you all sorts of information, such as height, weight, eye color, place of birth, port of departure, and name of the ship on which the person traveled. But you are surprised to see that on this official form your ancestor signed, it says, “I emigrated to the United States of America from [fill in the blank].”
Well, that’s curious. In one sentence, it says a person emigrated to one place and from another. Upon further research, you discover that wording is exactly the same on many declarations of intention. As you continue researching your ancestry, you might run across a directory, such as the 1873 History and Directory of Yates County, New York, where on page after page it says people “emigrated to” various places in the United States, and it names those places where they settled. And then you might discover that between the years 1852 to 1853, the state of Wisconsin had an Office of Emigration that existed not to aid people in exiting the state but for the purpose of attracting people, especially German-speaking Europeans, to come into the state and take up residence.
By then maybe you’re thinking it’s just antiquated language or people way back then not knowing which words to use. But then you discover some congressional records from the late 1970s, such as the Emigration Waiver or Waiver of Freedom of Emigration that speak of people from the countries of Romania and Hungary emigrating to the United States, West Germany, or Israel.
At this point, you might be tempted to send an email to your former English teacher or to Grammar Girl about how badly you’ve been led astray by the insistence that people immigrate into and emigrate out of a country. But please don’t. Instead, let’s look at those two words and their usages a little more closely.
Most, if not all, dictionaries say that an immigrant is a person who enters into a country to become a resident, and an emigrant is a person who leaves or exits a country to reside elsewhere. But that does not mean that immigrants and emigrants are two different types of people who undertake two different activities. Emigrants who leave one place and settle in another are also immigrants. Or, to say it another way, immigrants who settle in a new country are also emigrants of the country they left.
The online Merriam-Webster dictionary in answer to the question “Must an ‘immigrant’ also be an ‘emigrant’?” says there is little difference semantically between the two words because both refer to a person who leaves one country and moves to another. That dictionary also confirms that both “immigrate” and “emigrate” have been used interchangeably, and significant evidence exists showing those words used with a variety of overlapping prepositions. To quote that dictionary, “the borders between these words are somewhat porous.”
Similarly, on an “Ask the Editor” page of The Britannica Dictionary, it says that "immigrate" and "emigrate" both mean someone is moving from one country to another, and sometimes both words are used the same way.
So what should we do in light of this information? Is there a difference between "immigrate" and "emigrate"? Does it matter how we use those two words?
Although there is a difference not only in spelling but also in meaning, the usage of those two words demonstrates it is not something to be dogmatic about. Technically, "emigrate" means to exit and "immigrate" means to enter, but sometimes the choice of word used is based on the perspective of the one using it and if the emphasis or focus is on exiting or entering a country. Other times, it’s just a matter of choosing one word for the sake of an economy of words or not having an awkward-sounding sentence. Even though it is grammatically correct to say that your great-grandpa immigrated to the United States and emigrated from Germany, it is grammatically correct and makes sense to say the same thing in four different ways without altering the meaning. You could say that he emigrated from Germany to the United States, emigrated to the United States from Germany, immigrated from Germany to the United States, or immigrated to the United States from Germany.
Regardless of how you use "immigrate" and "emigrate" or how you see those words being used, the important thing to remember is that even though they have different meanings, they refer to the same person and event, which is a person who moved from one country to another to take up residence.
Therefore, the answer to the question of whether immigrants or emigrants are coming or going is “yes.”
That segment was by Brenda Thomas, a freelance writer who enjoys writing about a variety of topics in the humanities and education.
Before we get to the familect, in a recent interview, Heddwen Newton and I talked about misles, words we pronounce wrong because we've only read them, and a listener named Mark called in to share his misle:
Hi, Mignon. I just listened to your latest podcast with Heddwen and really enjoyed it, especially the part about the misle'd words. I think one of mine would be the word "awry." Whenever I read it, I always thought it was pronounced "oury," and it wasn't for years until I realized it was the same word as when people say "awry." Anyway, I thought you'd just like to know in case you want to add it as another segment along with the familects. Thanks. Bye.
Thanks, Mark. This is another common problem that arises from the erratic spelling we have in English, and I think we're all going to enjoy an interview I have coming up in late May with Gabe Henry, who has a fabulous new book coming out called "Enough if Enuf," all about the history of the English spelling reform movement. I'm reading the advance preview edition right now and loving it.
And next, I have a really fun familect from Debbie.
Hi, Grammar Girl, this is Debbie.
I was going to tell you about being Ko Pha-ngan'd.
So a long long time ago when my husband and I first got together, we were travelling around Asia, and we got to Thailand, and he wanted to share with me this beautiful quiet island that he'd visited previously, and he wanted us to visit together to appreciate it.
So we got the boat to Kho Samui, and then we found the boat to take us to Ko Pha-ngan, a smaller island.
So we started the journey over, and it was really beautiful, and the sun was just starting to go down.
And as we got closer, we could see lights, and he was looking confused, and he said, "I really do not remember all these lights." And we got closer and closer, and all these buildings appeared, and it was lit up like a Christmas tree, and he looked so miserable and so crestfallen.
In the two years since he'd last been there, the place had been transformed into a huge backpacker area, complete with full moon raves, ecstasy being passed around, and he looked so crestfallen that now every time we go somewhere that we're disappointed by, somewhere we've been to previously and it's changed, like a restaurant or somewhere we used to travel to, we always look at each other and say, "We've been Ko Pha-ngan'd." Or if we want to go somewhere, and we say, "Do you think we might be Ko Pha-ngan'd. Here?"
Okay, thank you.
Thanks so much, Debbie! I loved this so much. You painted such a picture that I felt disappointed with all the lights and noise right along with you.
If you want to share the story of your familect, a word or phrase that you only use with your friends or family, leave a message on the voicemail line at 83-321-4-GIRL or leave a voice message on WhatsApp, and if you want that number or link later, you can always find them in the show notes.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to Davina Tomlin and Nat Hoopes in Marketing; Dan Feierabend in audio; Holly Hutchings in digital operations; Morgan Christianson in advertising; and Brannan Goetschius, director of podcasts, who just got back from an outdoor guys trip to Idaho.