Write Smart! Seen vs. Saw

There are a number of regions in the U.S. where most of the population does not use seen and saw in the same format as standard English. It's very difficult for people who grew up this way to switch to correct usages. But let's make it clear what standard English says.

Probably the fast and dirty answer is that you must use "have," "has," or "had" in front of the word "seen." However, "See" and "saw" stand on their own. Never use a form of "have" with either of those.

Here are three official categories. Columns two and three are the only tenses of the verb "to see" that use "seen."

Present tense	Present Perfect tense	Past Perfect tense
I see	I have seen	I had seen
you see	you have seen	you had seen
he/she/it sees	he/she/it has seen	he/she/it had seen
we see	we have seen	we had seen
you see	you have seen	you had seen
they see	they have seen	they had seen

So just remember to always use a form of "have" with "seen."

P.S. "Seeing" is a whole different ball game. Maybe another time.

Write Smart! I or me?

Should you use I or me in that sentence? Let's get the names of those things out of the way. "I" is a subject. It can do action. "Me" is an object. Actions can be done to it.

Most of us are good with simple sentences like "I went to the store," or "He gave the book to me."

Where we get in trouble is when we add extra people. "He gave the book to Meg and I," or "He gave the book to Meg and me." It's easy to decide which is correct if you take out Meg. Most of us know that "He gave the book to I" is wrong.

Lots of people say things like "Jack and me went fishing." Again, take out Jack, and you'll know in an instant it should be "Jack and I went fishing."

There are other permutations of this same problem of mixing subjects and objects. I'll cover some of those in other hints.