Is it gramatically correct to say "It is me"?

bradwelljackson · Post by **bradwelljackson** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:40 am

The phone rings, you pick it up and say "Yes, it's me". Is this gramatically correct?

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:20 am

Yes. There are some interesting things here.

The phrase is the same in French 'C'est moi.'

'Me' is the emphatic pronoun but in many variants 'I', is, or is becoming, the emphatic pronoun.

The Spanish are going to ask you why you don't say 'I am I/me" as the first person complement requires a first person subject in Spanish ('soy yo').

The answer is that the subject is the theme of the sentence, and the first person is not the theme but the new information, reme, or focus. So we have the dummy subject 'it'.

ouyang · Post by **ouyang** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:07 pm

Many people will tell you that any predicate pronoun in the objective case is incorrect. That's what they've been taught. They consider the copular verb to be identical to an equal sign in a mathematical equation.

It's not. Using the subjective case for predicate pronouns in English makes people sound stupid, but many prefer that to sounding uneducated.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:29 pm

There's no such thing as the subjective case and the objective case. There are subject pronouns and object pronouns, and nominative, accusative & dative cases.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:46 pm

Objective case would be a lot more transparent than accusative (Hurford for one suggests it as an alternative), and if that, then why not subjective too? Another plus point would be that objective case would cover both accusative and dative in English (e.g. He gave her to me; He gave me her). Which overlaps with subject versus object pronouns.

Or should we stick to established terminology even if that makes it harder for people (especially newbies) to communicate with us? For the link to Latin and other languages etc.

Still, imagine a grammar written with as many transparent terms as possible - it would take off like a rocket I bet.

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:15 pm

How do you expain the one word answers to "Who" questions?

Who wants a bun? Me!

I've been in favour of the term "disjunctive pronoun" for a long time. It means that "Me and John went" is grammatical, but considered rude.

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:33 pm

I think of "object" pronouns as "default" pronouns these days - they seem to occur in every situation unless the pronoun is the unique subject of an actual stated verb or auxiliary. (I don't know which varieties SJ means).

As to Bradwell's question, I can't see any reason at all to think it isn't correct. Prescriptive grammar is, however, at absolute loggerheads with usage when it comes to pronouns, making it impossible to satisfy both on some occasions, thus people have an urge to hypercorrect.

ouyang · Post by **ouyang** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:25 am

JuanTwoThree wrote:How do you expain the one word answers to "Who" questions? Who wants a bun? Me!

Yes, it's similar to the short agreement form "Me too!" in response to "I want a drink." I like this "emphatic pronoun" concept the SJ mentioned, but the references I find equate them with reflexive pronouns.

I think some pronoun forms can be attributed to phonological forces. Say "I and John" three times very quickly. When "me" combines with "and" it can be heard more distinctly.

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 7:58 am

I don't think anybody in their right minds would really say "It's we!" even if they might insist on "It is I" in abstract.

My idea of "disjunctive" gets blown out of the water by "Our friends and we went" "We and our friends went" "Our friends and us went" and "Us and our friends went". I don't mind "We and our friends went" which disjoins the we from its verb.

Woe is I.

bradwelljackson · Post by **bradwelljackson** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:06 am

In the sentence "It is me", is the word "me" an appositive, or is it just a predicate nominative?