Difference Between I and Me

I vs Me

Many mistakes and errors have been made because of miscommunication with consequences ranging from mundane and funny to catastrophic and horrible. One major reason for this is improper use of language used in communications. English is spoken in many countries around the world but, sadly, very few people can actually distinguish when a grammatical error is made just like in the case of using the words ‘I’ and ‘me.’

By simple analysis, both terms can be defined as pertaining to one’s self. And because of this, most people tend to use them loosely and often interchange the two unmindful that each one has a proper usage and form in the English language. In today’s high-tech world, this is readily acceptable–and why not since convenience has altered the way people communicate with each other. Why use five words when you can make your point using two?

‘I’ and ‘me’ are both classified as pronouns, but they have different uses. This is taught in English subjects offered in many schools all over the world. However, popular culture is far more influential than proper grammar, and so school children and teens get confused between doing what is right and what is cool. It’s a one-sided battle that English instructors wage against hip-hop artists and movie stars who can get away with almost anything these days.

‘I’ is classified as a subject pronoun. A subject is what a sentence or clause is talking about. A good example goes like this: ‘The dog is barking.’ In this sentence, clearly the subject is the dog since the whole sentence talks about barking. In the case of the word ‘I,’ it is used primarily as a subject compared with ‘me’ which is an object pronoun.

Using the same example, one can add an object pronoun at the end which goes like this: ‘The dog is barking at me.’ It did not alter the subject of the sentence, which is the dog, but essentially it added an object where the subject’s action is directed at. In the same manner, adding a pronoun like ‘I’ will add another subject to the sentence which can make it confusing.

It will look like this: ‘The dog is barking at I.’ The words ‘dog’ and ‘I’ are both subjects which can alter what the whole statement means based on proper grammar. In order to check the correctness of pronoun use, one should ask this question: ‘What is the subject of the verb or the action word?’ When it is identified, then instead of adding a subject pronoun like ‘I,’ it’s more proper to use an object pronoun like the word ‘me.’

In most cases, confusion between these words happens when using sentences with compound or more than one subject. To make things easier, one simple test can be used. Simply remove one subject and listen to how it sounds. ‘Ben and I went fishing’ will become ‘I went fishing’ which sounds proper compared to ‘me went fishing.’

Summary:
1. ‘I’ is a subject pronoun while ‘me’ is an object pronoun.
2. Object pronouns can be added to make a compound sentence while subject pronouns cannot coexist with another subject without altering subject-verb agreement in a sentence.

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