"I" or "me"?

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ngoc_lan

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I'm confused with this. Please help.

There are 3 members in my family: my dad, my mom and I/me

It is he/him who came into the class

I or me, he or him is correct?

Please help me to understand it

Thank you
 
ngoc_lan said:
I'm confused with this. Please help.

There are 3 members in my family: my dad, my mom and I/me

It is he/him who came into the class

I or me, he or him is correct?

Please help me to understand it

Thank you
Click to expand...


Personally, I would say

'There are three members in my family: myself, my dad and my mum.

I believe it's similar to saying 'myself and John'

'it is he/him who came into the class' I believe this is incorrect.

it should be said, 'he came into the class'.




Not a teacher...Yet
 
Those sentences are all in the TOEFL CBT Prep Guide.

But I've lost the keys.

Your answer is not convincing to me. But thanks anyway!

Someone please help!
 
Last edited:
"There are three of us, John, Fred and I" this is correct. "There are three of us, John, Fred and me" this is acceptable.
"It is he/him who came into the class" this is not a very natural utterance. In response to the question "Who came into the class?" the most natural responses would be "It was him" or "He did".
 
thank you very much
 
ngoc_lan said:
Thank you very much.
Click to expand...

A click on the Like button is all you need to do to thank us.

There's no need to send your thanks in a separate post — especially one in ungrammatical English, putting somebody to the trouble of correcting it.

Rover
 
"It is he who..." is correct, never him.
 
Jiayun said:
But B said in the previous post that "it was him" .... I am lost ..... :shock:
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bhai said, my emphasis added, "It is he/him who came into the class" this is not a very natural utterance. In response to the question "Who came into the class?" the most natural responses would be "It was him" or "He did".

If you insist on using the not very natural form, then 'it is he who' is the form that some say is the only correct one.
 
It is important to understand the difference between "not very natural" and "incorrect". If something is actually incorrect, we will say so. If it is grammatically correct but would sound (to a native's ears) rather odd, wordy, clunky or, in many cases, simply like it is being said by a non-native who has learnt a particular construction and is using it, then we will probably say that it doesn't sound "natural".
 
Thanks!

Would it be natural to say "It was he who started typing English in wats app first."?

JY

emsr2d2 said:
It is important to understand the difference between "not very natural" and "incorrect". If something is actually incorrect, we will say so. If it is grammatically correct but would sound (to a native's ears) rather odd, wordy, clunky or, in many cases, simply like it is being said by a non-native who has learnt a particular construction and is using it, then we will probably say that it doesn't sound "natural".
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Yes.
 
Jiayun said:
Thanks!

Would it be natural to say "It was he who started typing English in wats app first."?

JY
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What in the world does that mean?

"in wats app first" is nonsense.

The natural way to say this, whatever the heck is it, is "He was the one who ..."
 
ngoc_lan said:
There are 3 members in my family: my dad, my mom and I/me
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NOT A TEACHER


Hello, Ngoc lan:

May I add my non-teacher's two bits to the excellent answers that you have already received?

I understand how you feel: you want rules to guide you and you have to pass examinations based on "book grammar."

In my opinion (if I understand my grammar books), the "correct" sentence is:

"There are 3 members in my family: my dad, my mom, and I."

*****

Let me try to explain my reasoning:

1. In analyzing a "there" sentence, we usually ignore the "there."

2. We are left with "are 3 members in my family: my dad, my mom, and I."

3. For easier analysis, we are taught to eliminate any unnecessary words. So let's delete (drop) "in my family."

4. Now we have: "are 3 members: my dad, my mom, and I."

5. As you know, that is not a "good" sentence, so let's put it in "regular order":

6. Three members: my dad, my mom, and I are. ("Are" means something like "exist" or " live" in your sentence.)

7. We could write it this way:

Three members (my dad, my mom, and I) are.

8. As you know "three members" is the subject of the sentence. Thus, the subjective case.

9. "My dad, my mom, and I" are appositives (that is, they refer back to "three members."). Thus, they must also

be in the subjective case. ("I" = subjective case; "me" = objective case.)

10. Study this sentence:

Mona loves three members (of my family): Tony, Sue, and me.

a. In that sentence, "three members" is the object of the verb "loves." Thus, "Tony, Sue, and me" are in the objective case in order to match the objective case of "three members."

*****

11. I know that this is really (=very) difficult. If you have any questions, please do ask. Someone will be delighted to assist you.

Sincerely yours and best of luck to you on your examinations,


James
 
TheParser said:
1. In analyzing a "there" sentence, we usually ignore the "there."
2. We are left with "are 3 members in my family: my dad, my mom, and I."
3. For easier analysis, we are taught to eliminate any unnecessary words. So let's delete (drop) "in my family."
4. Now we have: "are 3 members: my dad, my mom, and I."
5. As you know, that is not a "good" sentence, so let's put it in "regular order":
6. Three members: my dad, my mom, and I are. ("Are" means something like "exist" or " live" in your sentence.)
7. We could write it this way:
Three members (my dad, my mom, and I) are.
8. As you know "three members" is the subject of the sentence. Thus, the subjective case.
Click to expand...
Once you start rewriting sentences, 'ignoring' and 'eliminating' parts, you can prove almost anything. bhai's post, #4, seems to me to deal with the sentence as it is.
 
In case the answer got lost in all the discussion:

For purposes of testing by grammar nazis, "It is he" is correct, since the delayed subject or subjective complement (take your pick) must be in the subjective (nominative) form.

For purposes of everyday speech: "it's him" is the way people say it, almost always.

For purposes of formal writing: avoid the construction. Say "he was the one who did it" or simply "he did it".

I know I'm restating bits and pieces of many previous posts.
 
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