"The meeting was attended by John, Ron and I/me." Which pronoun is correct? — Imke, South Africa
Answer
"I" is a subject pronoun and "me" is an object pronoun. To figure out which pronoun you should use, you need to determine if it is the subject of a verb or the object of a verb or preposition.
A subject is the noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that performs the action of a verb in a sentence. An object is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that receives the action of a verb or completes the meaning of a preposition.
In the sentence "The meeting was attended by John, Ron and I/me" the noun phrase "John, Ron and I/me" is the object of the preposition "by." This means that "me" is the correct choice.
Sometimes when you have a noun phrase like "John, Ron and I/me" it can be helpful to remove the other nouns and say the sentence with only the pronoun:
The meeting was attended by I. = Incorrect (This will sound incorrect to most people.)
The meeting was attended by me. = Correct (This will sound correct to most people.)
I hope this helps.
For more posts about words, idioms, grammar, and usage, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
Don't forget to subscribe to our Word of the Day e-mails!
Click here to try one of our vocabulary quizzes before you go!
