I understand that grammatically, "it is I" is correct, but I don't really understand why "it is I" is correct and "it is me" is not. Can you clarify this for me, please?
2007-12-19 02:25:50 · 4 answers · asked by Sunshine Laserwing 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Verbs of 'being' take different kinds of predicates than "action" verbs do.
For an action verb, the pronoun in the predicate will be in the objective case: "She loves him." (not "she loves he")
But with "being verbs", which are regarded as asserting that the predicate is identical with the subject, the nominative case is used: "It is she" (not "it is her"). This is called a predicate nominative.
In practice, it seems to be dissappearing from casual speech.
Objects of a preposition are in the objective case, so I have to disagree with the earlier poster: "clarify this for me" is correct.
2007-12-19 03:12:24 · answer #1 · answered by Michael M 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because "is" is a state-of-being verb. You might think "It is me" is correct, because "me" is the objective form, but "is" doesn't take a direct object. Actually, the sentence "It is I" is an inversion of "I am it", "I" is not the subject of the first sentence, but because of the state-of-being verb, it is equivalent (in some sense) to the subject because it is a pronoun representing the subject.
2007-12-19 02:35:53 · answer #2 · answered by smcwhtdtmc 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I is used as the subject. I ran to the store. I petted the bunny.
Me is used as the object. She gave me a dollar. He looked at me.
In the statement, "It is I", It is the subject. So, the pronoun representing It must also be in subject form.
It is I who baked the cake.
It is he who washed the dishes.
It is she who sat on the couch while we worked.
2007-12-19 02:35:40 · answer #3 · answered by Dave B. 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You said ''Can you clarify this for me, please?'' but surely if your theory is correct you should have said ''Can you clarify this for I, please'' Just saying.
2007-12-19 02:34:49 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋