me. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993

Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.

me (pron.)


is the accusative or objective case of the first person singular pronoun, and whether to use I, me, or myself often raises usage questions.	1
After than or as, as in She is taller than me [I] and She is as old as me [I], the issue is whether than and as are functioning as subordinating conjunctions or prepositions. Each can be either one: if they are conjunctions, the pronouns will be nominative case subjects of the clauses they introduce; if prepositions, the pronouns will be objective case objects of prepositions. Both uses are Standard today.	2
Compound subjects and direct objects (John and I [not me] are going; They sent Mary and me [not I]) cause trouble that single-word subjects or objects never create (I am going; They sent me). Standard English requires nominative forms as subjects and objective forms as objects. Never confuse the two: never say or write Me and Fred are going or They asked Mary and I.	3
Reserve myself for emphasis, as in I myself saw her, and for reflexive use, as in I gave it to her myself. Don’t use myself as the pronoun in a compound structure such as Give it to John and myself; instead, make it Give it to John and me. See CASE (1); MYSELF; PERSONAL PRONOUNS; SYNTAX.	4