# Improper use of the word "I"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 4, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321 "2014-12-04T17:12:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321/41 "2014-12-06T13:07:10Z")

</div>

One goes not see this mistake regularly, but one will remind oneself to keep an eye out for it. 😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321/42 "2014-12-06T13:30:26Z")

</div>

> [@MandaJo](#):
>
> Well, if someone is using at as an affectation, and is being smug about it, I think it’s okay to be annoyed, because affectations are annoying. But not every objective “I” is the result of an affectation.
> 
> Otherwise, yeah, being smug about other people’s minor grammar errors is silly. I’ve got a friend who never ends a sentence with a preposition, but he mangles the subjunctive all the time. I love me the subjunctive mode, but can’t be bothered to avoid terminal prepositions. So should we mutually write each other off as illiterates?

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with terminal prepositions (as a general rule. I’m sure you can come up with constructions where it would not be ideal.). I doubt there are many, if any, prescriptivists/stylists around that object to it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321/43 "2014-12-06T22:20:55Z")

</div>

> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> Also, people seem to have a problem using the word “me” in any situation. How often do corporate messages end with “please contact myself” or a variation thereof?

2.3 percent of the time, it seems to myself.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321/44 "2014-12-06T23:22:01Z")

</div>

You know what really grates? When people say _pied_ instead of _pes_, _frère_ instead of _frater_, and act like their language has only two genders. They aren’t speaking correctly, and their utterly barbarous sub-literate ape-hoots are all that is wrong with society. How can you keep _fides_ when you think it’s _foi_, I ask you? How?

Don’t talk to me of Larousse. He will be first against the wall when it all comes apart. His perversions haven’t gone unnoticed. I’ve made a little list, oh my _oui_… damn!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sich\_hinaufwinden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@sich\_hinaufwinden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sich_hinaufwinden)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321/45 "2014-12-07T00:28:43Z")

</div>

> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Of course, there’s nothing wrong with terminal prepositions (as a general rule. I’m sure you can come up with constructions where it would not be ideal.). I doubt there are many, if any, prescriptivists/stylists around that object to it.

An example I recall would be something like: Where are you going to?

In that case it’s not really because “to” is a preposition, but rather that the word “to” is not needed at all.

But your point remains that we are presumably discussing English as opposed to Latin.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yeahman239](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/85f322/32.png) [@yeahman239](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yeahman239)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321/46 "2014-12-07T02:28:25Z")

</div>

People also say “Me and X (insert verb here)…” even though “me” is the direct object (we call them “accusatives” in Latin)

You’re right that I is supposed to be the subject (“I did this…” or “X and I did that…”)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321/47 "2014-12-07T03:08:16Z")

</div>

> [@Derleth](#):
>
> You know what really grates? When people say _pied_ instead of _pes_, _frère_ instead of _frater_, and act like their language has only two genders. They aren’t speaking correctly, and their utterly barbarous sub-literate ape-hoots are all that is wrong with society. How can you keep _fides_ when you think it’s _foi_, I ask you? How?
> 
> Don’t talk to me of Larousse. He will be first against the wall when it all comes apart. His perversions haven’t gone unnoticed. I’ve made a little list, oh my _oui_… damn!

😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321/48 "2014-12-07T13:57:38Z")

</div>

And then there’s the former coworker who referred to “you’s guys’s cars’s gas tanks”. It was a setting in which correction was permitted, but I didn’t know where to begin.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321/49 "2014-12-07T14:04:25Z")

</div>

> [@panache45](#):
>
> And then there’s the former coworker who referred to “you’s guys’s cars’s gas tanks”. It was a setting in which correction was permitted, but I didn’t know where to begin.

“Youse guys’ cars’ gas tanks,” of course. 🙂 (Actually, a serious answer if you want to keep the colloquial with proper apostrophes.)

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/improper-use-of-the-word-i/706321.md?page=2)