What's the 'me' or 'I' rule?

[FortyCoats]

When putting both in a sentence?

My understanding as a school child was, it should alway be 'I' when you're talking about yourself and someone but somewhere along the line, I picked up a new rule and I have no idea if it's correct or not

Take these sentences...

"Are you taking me and Sarah in your car?" I think that's correct because if I remove Sarah from the sentence/question it reads "are you taking me in your car?"

If the sentence was "are you taking Sarah and I in your car?" and you removed Sarah from the sentence, it would read "are you taking I in your car?" which is obviously wrong.

"Sarah and I are going in your car" is correct (according to my rule ) and "me and Sarah are going in your car" is incorrect because, again, if Sarah is removed from the sentences, they would read "I am going in your car" or "me is going in your car"

Am I right, nearly right, a little bit right or way off the mark?

IMO the Oxford comma slows you down when reading and I don't like it except where it's necessary ( as in the Stalin/strippers & parents/Pope examples). Seeing it in red, blue, and green drives me nuts and I was taught it was wrong (1970s).

I'm reading a novel written in the 1850s and there are commas, in the middle of sentences. Like that. . Nuts.

I was taught that the "me" or "I" rule was if that the sentence should still make sense if you take the other person out of it?

So - "mum and me went to the shops" is wrong, because you wouldn't say "me went to the shops". It has to be "mum and I went to the shops"

Pretty easy to remember that way.

Loving those Oxford comma examples

I personally hate the way people (especially telesales cold-callers for some reason) say "myself" when they just mean "me". The word me is not rude, not when it is the correct word.

But that's a whole other thread

What about the phrase 'The Queen and I' which was the title of an article on the BBC news website? That looks incorrect to me. And the film 'The King and I' - does the rule change when royalty is involved?