Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Me or I?

Do you know the difference between these two sentences?

She likes him more than me.
She likes him more than I.

Probably most English speakers wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference, but the two sentences mean completely different things. To show the difference, I’ll add the words that are not spoken, but that can be inferred from the case of the pronouns.

She likes him more than she likes me.
She likes him more than I like him.

How do you know that? In sentence 1, “him” and “me” are pronouns in the “objective case.” They must be objects in the sentence. In sentence 2, “I” is in the “subjective case” it cannot serve as an object.

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