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 This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
| I vs Me This is a re-post from my old writing blog. Why am I reposting something I already posted two years ago? Because I keep seeing it in writing here at WdC! So, this is a reminder post. As such, this is copy-paste (with some extra bits at the end). Deal with it. I received an email from a writing friend who was confused by an editor's changing of her "I" to "me" in a few sentences. So she asked me to explain how it works. Well, generally, I is in the subjective (the subject of the sentence when diagramming). This is "I went for a walk." On the other hand me is in the objective (the object of the sentence when diagramming). "The bull chased me." Me also appears after a lot of prepositions, as most come from the Latin and take the accusative or ablative. So, for example, "to" takes me. ("She sent a letter to me.") Between also takes me. "Between me and the cow was a fence." The confusion comes when the first person (I/me) is used in conjunction with another noun. "Mary and I went for a walk." "The bull chased Mary and me." Now, the secret to working out which is which is separate it into two sentences. "Mary and I went for a walk." --> "Mary went for a walk. I went for a walk." "The bull chased Mary and me." --> "The bull chased Mary. The bull chased me." One of the examples my friend had was: "The teacher told Elizabeth and I off." The editor, quite rightly, changed I to me. Why? The teacher told Elizabeth off. The teacher told me off. NOT: The teacher told I off. First person pronouns in the plural: the above rules apply with we equivalent to I, and us equivalent to me. When it comes to third person pronouns, the above rules still apply with he, she, they equivalent to I, and him, her, them equivalent to me… I think that explains it. I hope that explains it. |
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