When to use I or me.

Using I.

Even native speakers of English are sometimes confused about when to use I and when to use me in a sentence.

I and me are personal pronouns, along with other such words as you, we, they, them, and it. Every Thai person who knows a little English knows that it is correct to say:

I took the bus to Tha Prachan.

No one would say by mistake:

Me took the bus to Tha Prachan.

Yet some written or spoken sentences using personal pronouns can be more complex and challenging. For example:

My friend Nui and I took the bus to Tha Prachan.

This is correct because the pronoun before the verb is the subject of the sentence. Some people might make the mistake of thinking that this incorrect sentence was acceptable:

My friend Nui and me took the bus to Tha Prachan.

Even some native-born speakers of English will use me where I is required, as in the above sentence, but this does not make it correct. In written English, the standards of grammatical correctness are higher than in speech. While speakers might get away with making this kind of error in an informal conversation, it is unacceptable in a written sentence, especially in a formal context such as a term paper, thesis, or article.  It is worth taking the time and trouble to get this detail right. Some people advise using instinctive understanding of English to tell if something is wrong or not, rather than learning grammatical rules. For example, in choosing which sentence is correct:

My friends Nui and Lek and me took the bus to Tha Prachan.

or

My friends Nui and Lek and I took the bus to Tha Prachan.

The subject of the sentence would be “My friends Nui and Lek and me” or “My friends Nui and Lek and I.” The recommended instinctive approach would ask you to forget about your friends Nui and Lek for the moment and just leave I or me alone as the subject of the sentence. That leaves you with an easy choice between:

me took the bus to Tha Prachan.

or

I took the bus to Tha Prachan.

Since I is the obvious choice, then the correct sentence must be:

My friends Nui and Lek and I took the bus to Tha Prachan.

Sometimes what is correct does not always sound right, even to a native English speaker. So if you knock on someone’s door and they ask who is it, the correct answer would be:

It is I.

Most people, including British and American people, would say “It’s me.” Yet the correct usage is I rather than me. That is because a subject pronoun must go after state-of-being verbs such as am, is, was, were, or seemed.

Using me.

When the pronoun is the object of a verb, then me is the correct choice instead of I. This can be even more difficult to guess than with the examples for I already mentioned. For example, which is correct?

The bus left Nui, Lek, and me at Tha Prachan.

or

The bus left Nui, Lek, and I at Tha Prachan.

This time, the correct choice is

The bus left Nui, Lek, and me at Tha Prachan.

That is because the personal pronoun is not the subject of the sentence. The bus is the subject. Instead, the personal pronoun is the object of the verb left (to leave). If you have no time or interest to learn complex grammatical rules, you can try the instinctive trick again. Eliminate Nui and Lek once again, and you have two choices for the above sentence:

The bus left me at Tha Prachan.

The bus left I at Tha Prachan.

Once again, even a very elementary student of English will probably know that something sounds funny about “The bus left I at Tha Prachan,” so you should easily know that me is the appropriate choice here.

Pronouns as object of prepositions.

Which is correct?

Lek went to the party with Nui and I.

Lek went to the party with Nui and me.

In the above sentence, the personal pronoun is the object of the preposition with. Some native English speakers get this wrong, thinking it somehow sounds more polite or refined to say Lek went to the party with Nui and I. In fact the correct version is Lek went to the party with Nui and me.

Again, you can try out the alternatives on your own to see which looks or sounds better to you:

Lek went to the party with I.

Lek went to the party with me.

Few people would make the mistake of saying Lek went to the party with I, so it is easy to select me in this case.

Tricky questions.

Remember that the right answer can sometimes seem wrong until you apply this test to it. For example, which is correct?

He and I will meet at Central Pinklao.

Him and me will meet at Central Pinklao.

Since He and I are the subjects of the sentence, then this the correct form. Trying out the alternatives with a single subject quickly shows us that something is wrong:

I will meet at Central Pinklao.

me will meet at Central Pinklao.

So even if it does not seem quite right to you, He and I will meet at Central Pinklao becomes the only possible choice.

 (all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).