Writing Blog

20230714 "I vs Me"

July 14, 2023, 4:30pm

When I started this blog, I decided it would my writing journey, and also where I could offer some advice to fellow writers.

This is part of the latter.

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.

I think that explains it.

I hope that explains it.