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| Introduction | Main Entry: me Pronunciation: 'mE Function: pronoun, objective case of I Etymology: Middle English, from Old English mE; akin to Old High German mIh me, Latin me, Greek me, Sanskrit mA usage Me is used in many constructions where strict grammarians prescribe I. This usage is not so much ungrammatical as indicative of the shrinking range of the nominative form: me began to replace I sometime around the 16th century largely because of the pressure of word order. I is now chiefly used as the subject of an immediately following verb. Me occurs in every other position: absolutely (who, me?), emphatically (me too), and after prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs, including be (come with me) (you're as big as me) (it's me). Almost all usage books recognize the legitimacy of me in these positions, especially in speech; some recommend I in formal and especially written contexts after be and after as and than when the first term of the comparison is the subject of a verb. |
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