Why it has to be: ‘It is I’ instead of ‘It is Me’?

Question

Most of us whenever we answer the phone, for example, we response by saying; yes it’s me, Cathy. Now, and according to my teacher English such a statement is wrong. In term of English grammar, the correct answer has to be: IT IS I, Cathy. Is that true, and why? Help

Answer 1

In spoken English, the phrase is "It is me." In a higher class of English, one is supposed to say "It is I." That's the difference.

Answer 2

"It is I" follows a grammar rule that says that you should use a nominative form of the pronoun for predicate nominative. In other words, the rule says that, when you are using the verb "to be", whatever's associated with that verb should be in the nominative (or subjective) case. Therefore, "It is I".

HOWEVER, the reason this rule was invented in the 1700s was because, back then, people were saying both "It is I" and "It is me". The person who wrote the rule simply made an arbitrary choice about which one he thought people should use. He did this because he wanted to make English more like Latin.

In my opinion, English is not Latin, so I don't have a problem if people say the form that they have been using for hundreds of years, long before the rule was invented.

Answer 3

Well, your teacher is being someone who looks at the English language in absolutes because she is a teacher. Most people don't answer the phone that way. I have heard all the responses on this board and then some. It is "It is I, (insert name)" becuase you would say "I am here". It's kind of like the whole "Jamie and I went to the store" type thing. You wouldn't say "Jamie and me" because you would never say "Me went to the store" (well, maybe if you are 4) but you would say "I went to the store". Hope this helps. English language grammar rocks! Waaaay better than the der, die, das, den, dem, des thing in German (which are all words for "the")!

Answer 4

"It is me" is correct in spoken English. It is only considered incorrect by antique English teachers who still think that English should conform to Latin rules. Forget your English teacher on this one. "It is me" is correct colloquial English and you can tell her that a Linguistics professor told you so. lol

EDIT: To the people who say "The rule is...but no one follows it", I say think about how stupid that statement is. What is language? Language is the communicative element between PEOPLE, not between BOOKS. The rules of language are the habits and accepted practices that the SPEAKERS of the language use between themselves. There is NO other measure of what is "correct" and what is "incorrect". There is NO arbitrary "language judge" who decides what the rules are and what they are not. Therefore, if NO ONE says "It is I" and EVERYONE says "It is me", then the RULE IS "It is me".

EDIT: Do you know WHY you are supposed to say "It is I"? It is because that is the way you would say it in LATIN!!!! Read up on the history, that is EXACTLY the reason people keep trying to make the "It is I" rule stick. We do NOT speak Latin and never have. The RULE in ENGLISH is "It is me". Any attempt to force a rule of Latin on English is STUPID.

Answer 5

your English teacher is technically right but as you will see "it is me" is OK to use.
Her job is to educate you. She has taught you something you did not know.

"It is I or it is me? According to the Merriam Webster's Dictionary of the English Language,"...instead of the old choice between right and wrong we are now choosing a style; it is a choice that is much closer to the reality of usage than the old one was...Clearly, both the it is I and it's me patterns are in reputable use and have been for a considerable time. It is I tends to be used in more formal or more stuffy situations; it's me predominates in real and fictional speech and in a more relaxed writing style."

http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/#73

"Use It is I, not It is me.
R.I.P. Here's another ordinance that's out of date. It's OK to use It is me, That's him, It's her, and similar constructions, instead of using the grammatically correct but more stuffy It is I, That's he, and It's she.

Similarly, it's fine to say, Me too. The alternative, I too, is still grammatically correct, but unless you're addressing the Supreme Court or the Philological Society, you can drop the formality."

http://www.grammarphobia.com/grammar.html

Answer 6

"It is I" is like using the King James Version in english. We are in contemporary world now. I don't really see what's wrong in saying it is me...ummm thats why we quit school to skip grammars and math LöL.

Answer 7

"It is I" is correct, because "I" is the subject of the verb "is".

Hardly anyone speaks really correct English, and this is a rule that, if broken, no one would even notice. I suppose it is good to know the rules just in case...

Answer 8

Because this is a case of the predicate nominative where, after a linking verb, the pronoun in the predicate must be in the nominative case.

Duh

Answer 9

The simple way to know which is "correct" is to do a substitution test. For example, "It was I." or "It was me."

"It was I who went to the store." You could also say, "I went to the store."

"It was me who went to the store." If you said,"Me went to the store" it would not be gramatically correct.

But you know what? Me don't give a rodent's rectum!

Answer 10

English is a stupid language like that. Written is different then spoken.