Common mistake – Me too!

Do you know why Rita’s response below is incorrect?

John:     I didn’t like that movie very much.

Rita:      Me too.

You can only use “Me too” as a response to positive statements (not negative ones).

“I didn’t like …” is a negative statement. For this, you can respond with “Me neither”:

I didn’t like it that much.

Me neither.

An alternative to “Me too” is “So do/did/have/should I” (depending on the required auxiliary verb: do, did, have or should):

I’ve seen that movie before.

So have I. (<– use auxiliary verb “have” when responding to a present perfect statement)

I saw it last week.

So did I. (<– use auxiliary verb “did” when responding to a past simple statement)

An alternative to “Me neither” is “Neither do/did/have/should I” (again, depending on the required auxiliary verb: do, did, have or should):

I haven’t seen that movie.

Neither have I.

I didn’t like it very much.

Neither did I.

OR “I don’t/didn’t/haven’t/shouldn’t either” (Here, use ‘either’ instead of ‘neither’ because the auxiliary already makes the statement negative. Using ‘neither’ would create a double negative.)

I didn’t like it very much.

I didn’t either.

To disagree with either a positive or a negative statement, you only need to use the auxiliary verb:

I really liked that movie.

I didn’t.

OR

I haven’t seen that movie yet.

I have.