How To Choose Between I And Me Correctly 5 Steps

Nominative – The nominative case is used when the pronoun is the subject (e. g. “I rode in the car”) or, when speaking very formally, after a form of “to be” (e. g. “It is I,” would be formal, “It’s me” would be informal). [2] X Research source Accusative – The accusative case is used when the pronoun is the object (e. g. “He drove me to work”) or with prepositions (e. g. “between you and me,” not “between you and I”). [3] X Research source

If you’re trying to determine which pronoun to use in a sentence with a compound subject, try the sentence using only the pronoun part of the subject. Whichever pronoun, I or me, sounds right alone is the one to use in the compound subject

Mentally delete all other subjects or objects so that the sentence is reduced to its simplest form, with just “I” or “me” remaining. In this example, you would be left with “Me went to the store” and “I went to the store. " Now, it’s much easier to see that “I” is correct.

Examples: “Harry and me went to the store. " (Change it around so that Harry’s out of the picture and it’s just about you - you would never say, “Me went to the store. “) “Who’s at the door?” You answer, “It’s me. " (No, no, no! You would really properly say, “It is I. " Consider a related sentence: “That writer is me. ” Try reversing the word order,[6] X Research source and you end up with “Me am that writer. ” You use nominative pronouns such as “I” after forms of “to be” (i. e. am, are, is, was, were, be, being, and been). The “to be” functions as an equal sign, so the nouns and pronouns on both sides of the “equal sign” are nominative. “The cake was made by Justin and I. " (Would you ever say, “The cake was made by I”?)

“She likes Winifred more than I” means that “She likes Winifred more than I like Winifred. " “She likes Winifred more than me” extends to “She likes Winifred more than she likes me. " Writing out the implied words can help you avoid ambiguity and use the correct word in context.