“You and I combined” versus “you and me combined”

Question

Which is correct, "you and I combined" or "you and me combined"? as in:

Bob and I combined had 91 points

The "combined" confuses me.

Answer 1

In the original sentence, "Bob and I combined had 91 points", combined isn't the main verb. You could rewrite the sentence and still maintain its meaning by saying:

Together, Bob and I had 91 points.

The combined is serving more as a qualifier of the subject "Bob and I" rather than as a verb. It could be described as a participle, which shares characteristics of both verbs and adjectives.

So in this case, "Bob and I combined" is correct.

Answer 2

Try thinking of it in this way:

When Bob and I were combined, we had 91 points.

I hope that makes it clearer. To answer your question, "you and I combined" is correct.

Answer 3

I would have said, "Bob and I had 91 points, combined." Combined is used to distinguish 91 total points from "Bob and I have 91 points each." (A comment about the compound subject: Informally, people might say, Bob and me or even Me and Bob in that sentence. You and I is correct as a subject, you and me is correct as an object.)

Answer 4

Its simple, would you say?

Me had 91 points.

or

I had 91 points.

The use of combined is irrelavent. In this case me is wrong, I is right.

You may insert any length of description between I and had and as long as you add no other verb than have, I will always be right. No description of unity, togetherness or combination can change that.