hitchhiker  +  4026 Tue, 12 Aug 03 06:22 AM Grumpy Martha's Guide to Grammar and Usage on Msn (weird place!) Me, myself, and I A million well-meaning parents are to blame for the rampant abuse of the letter I. "It's Adam and I, not Adam and me." How many times have you heard that? The thing is, sometimes "Adam and me" is correct. It depends on whether you are the subject or object of the sentence. Are you glazing over yet? I understand and sympathise. But don't worry. There's an easier way to remember whether you should say I or me: Leave Adam out of the equation. If you're asking yourself, Hmmm, is it "Adam and I went to the store," or "Adam and me went to the store," just try thinking of the problem without Adam. You wouldn't say "Me went to the store," would you? So "Adam and I" it is. Nor would you say "Lucy gave I the ball." Which is why "Lucy gave Adam and me the ball" is correct. hitchhiker Joined on Mon, Nov 18 2002 Richmond, UK Senior Member 3,440 "They obstinately persisted in their absence." —HGTG Grammar

	kitkattail  +  4040 Tue, 12 Aug 03 08:08 AM Woodward: Aww... thanks! Hitchhiker: Yes, but that line of reasoning breaks down when you get to the verb "to be." People's ears will tell them that it is correct to say, "It is me," and so they will then also say, "It is Theodore and me." But since they were wrong in the first place, they will still be wrong when they add another noun. This is one of the best examples of why it is dangerous to rely on your ear alone without understanding the grammatical concept behind what you are saying. Ears need to be refined constantly. I'm still working on mine... sigh... kitkattail Joined on Tue, Aug 12 2003 Toronto Full Member 400 www.kitkattail.blogspot.com Verbs, Nouns

	kitkattail  +  4379 Thu, 14 Aug 03 05:42 PM That's the thing, though. It's not an object. It's a nominative complement. Here's a link to some good ol' Fowler that will back me up: http://www.bartleby.com/116/201.html (He gives examples, and in the examples, the italicized words are incorrect.) kitkattail Nominative

	maj  +  4382 Thu, 14 Aug 03 05:54 PM I think you are right because since we have the verb "to be" we call it a nominative complement by which we mean that "it" is the same person as the subject. However, it is still a complement. Used with another verb other than the verb "to be", it would be called direct object. maj Verbs, Nominative, Direct Objects

	grammarman  +  28973 Mon, 03 May 04 06:10 AM kitkattail, Fowler is not a great source to be checking re the state of present day English. -------------------------- http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97mar/ha...ern/nunberg.htm Take Modern English Usage, by that good man H. W. Fowler, "a Christian in all but actual faith," as the Dictionary of National Biography called him. Despite a revision in 1965, it is out-of-date, yet it still has a coterie ... -------------------------------------- According to the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language [CGEL] and other modern language scientists, both It is I AND It is me are fully grammatical, as is, Between you and I as are, "say hello to John from Rachel and I" OR "from Rachel and me" Prescriptive grammarians have been, well, to put it in a nutshell, errantly prescribing for centuries. GM grammarman Joined on Mon, May 3 2004 New Member 03 Grammar, Dates