USING PERSONAL PRONOUNS

English for Today by Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose (Dr GAB)

ÙSING PERSONAL PRONOUNS

You and ~them~ will be responsible for this (nonstandard).
You and they will be responsible for this (standard).
Subjective personal pronouns are used in the subject (actor) position of sentences.

He allowed ~they~ in (nonstandard).
He allowed them in (standard).
The object (i.e., the receiver of an action) should be in the objective form of the personal pronoun.

It was ~me~ (nonstandard).
It was I (standard).
The subjective pronoun should be used in subject complement position. This sentence will read in its full form as: It was I who did it (I did it). ✔️
It was me who did it (me did it). ✖️

This should be between you and ~I~ (nonstandard).
This should be between you and me (standard).
The objective pronoun should always be used after a preposition.

He is as tall as ~me~ (nonstandard).
He is as tall as I (standard). This can also read as: She is as tall as I am tall. ✔️
The subjective pronoun should be used after the conjunctions “as” and “than”, especially in formal usages.

In rare cases, the choice of the pronoun is tied to the intended meaning as seen below:
She likes Kunle more than me = She likes Kunle, she likes me but she likes Kunle more than she likes me .
She likes more than I = She likes Kunle, I like Kunle but she likes Kunle more than I like Kunle.
GAB