[naomimalan]

Originally Posted by banderas;272327[I

Perhaps I am stickler but saying "It's me" or "him and me went downtown" is as wrong as saying:"it don't work" or"ten items or less" or" How are you-I am good"I am far away from teaching natives their own languagebut if make a mistake in my native language, I don't say: its ok because milions of speakers make the same mistake...[/i]]

Glad your mother tongue being Polish helped you to understand !

That great Swiss linguist Saussure explained how ungrammatical structures and forms creep into the language and finally become acceptable. First they creep into the spoken language, then after a long time into the written language. At some stage, they have made it and are acceptable.

A sentence like “Who did you give it to?” is a good example. Around the time of the 2nd World War it would have been considered unacceptable by grammarians. “To whom did you give it?” was the correct way of putting it. Today we teach “Who did you give it to?” in our classes and you can see this confirmed in the course books (which is a good criterion.)

Your sentence above, “It’s me” is another example of this. We don’t teach “It’s I” any more, it’s considered pedantic. At some stage “It’s me” won the battle.

It’s not the same for “him and me went downtown”. Maybe in a hundred years’ time it will have become acceptable but for the time being it remains ungrammatical.

It’s more or less the same for “it don’t work”. Even though it’s widespread, it’s not standard English and would not be taught in any English classes. To be correct you still have to say “it doesn’t work.”

Your next example, “ten items or less” has probably won the battle. I think it has become acceptable.

Your last example, “How are you? – I am good” is wrong. I have only ever heard it spoken by non-native speakers. “Fine thanks, and you?” would be the appropriate answer.