I (pronoun)

This article is about the English personal pronoun. For other uses, see I (disambiguation).

The pronoun I /aɪ/ is the first-person singular nominative case personal pronoun in Modern English. It is used to refer to one's self and is capitalized, although other pronouns, such as he or she, are not capitalized.

The grammatical variants of I are me, my, mine, and myself.

Etymology

Further information: Old English pronouns, Proto-Germanic pronouns, and Proto-Indo-European pronouns

English I originates from Old English (OE) ic. Its predecessor ic had in turn originated from the continuation of Proto-Germanic ik, and ek; ek was attested in the Elder Futhark inscriptions (in some cases notably showing the variant eka; see also ek erilaz). Linguists assume ik to have developed from the unstressed variant of ek. Variants of ic were used in various English dialects up until the 1600s.

Germanic cognates are: Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek (Danish, Norwegian jeg, Swedish jag, Icelandic ég), Old High German ih (German ich) and Gothic ik and in Dutch also "ik".

The Proto-Germanic root came, in turn, from the Proto Indo-European language (PIE). The reconstructed PIE pronoun is *egō, egóm, with cognates including Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego, Greek ἐγώ egō and Old Slavonic azъ, Alviri-Vidari (an Iranian language) اَز (az)

The oblique forms are formed from a stem *me- (English me), the plural from *wei- (English we), the oblique plural from *ns- (English us).

Capitalization

I (and only this form of the pronoun) is the only pronoun that is always capitalized. The practice became established in the late 15th century, though lowercase 'i' was sometimes found as late as the 17th century.

Case forms

See also: Objective case § English

Like the other English personal pronouns we (us), he (him), she (her), and they (them), the pronoun I has several singular case forms. These are:

• I, the nominative (or subjective) case form
• me, the accusative (or objective) case form
• my, the dependent genitive (or possessive adjective) case form
• mine, the independent genitive case form (or possessive pronoun)

Use of I and me

There are some situations in which only the nominative form (I) is grammatically correct and others in which only the accusative form (me) is correct. There are also situations in which one form is used in formal style (and was often considered ungrammatical by older prescriptive grammars) and the other form is preferred in informal style.

Exclusive use of nominative I

In all varieties of standard English, the nominative form I is used exclusively when it is the whole subject of an explicit verb, e.g.

• "I did it."

not

• * "Me did it."

With other pronouns, such as we (strictly speaking when used as a personal determiner), there may be exceptions to this in some varieties of English.

Exclusive use of accusative me

In all varieties of standard English, the accusative form me is used exclusively when it is the whole direct or indirect object of a verb or preposition. The accusative me is also required in a number of constructions such as "Silly me!"

Alternative use of nominative and accusative

In many situations, both the nominative I and the accusative me are encountered.

When the pronoun is used as a subjective predicative complement, the nominative I is sometimes encountered in (very) formal style:

• "It is I."

But this is often seen as hypercorrect and may be unacceptable, as in:

• * "This one [photograph] is I as a baby.

Me is usually preferred as a subjective predicate, especially in informal style:

• "This is me as a baby."
• "It's me!"

The nominative I is more common in this role when it is followed by a relative clause:

• "It is I she loves."
• "It is I who love you."

though even here me is more common in non-formal style:

• "It is me she loves."
• "It is me who loves you."

Following as or than (without a following explicit verb), the accusative form is common:

• "She is older than me."

However, where it is possible to think of the pronoun as the subject of an implicit verb and than or as as a conjunction, the nominative I is found in formal style:

• "She is older than I [am]."

In Australian English, British English and Irish English, me can be used as the possessive instead of my (see archaic and non-standard forms of English personal pronouns).

Coordinative constructions

The above applies when the pronoun stands alone as the subject or object. In some varieties English (particularly formal English), those rules also apply in coordinative constructions such as "you and I". So the correct form is

• "My husband and I wish you a merry Christmas."
• "Between you and me ..."

In some varieties of non-standard informal English, the accusative is sometimes used when the pronoun is part of a coordinative subject construction, as in

• "Phil and me wish you a merry Christmas."

This is highly stigmatized.

On the other hand, the use of the nominative I in coordinative constructions like "you and I"where me would be used in a non-coordinative object is less stigmatized – and in some cases so widespread as to be considered a variety of standard English:

• "President Bush graciously invited Michelle and I to meet with him ..."
• "All debts are cleared between you and I".

Personal pronouns in modern English

Personal pronouns in standard Modern English

Person (gender)		Subject	Object	Dependent Possessive	Independent Possessive	Reflexive
Singular
First		I	me	my	mine	myself
Second		you		your	yours	yourself
Third	Masculine	he	him	his		himself
	Feminine	she	her		hers	herself
	Neuter	it		its		itself
	Epicene	they	them	their	theirs	themselves
Plural
First		we	us	our	ours	ourselves
Second		you		your	yours	yourselves
Third		they	them	their	theirs	themselves

Older versions

Old English pronouns

			Nominative	IPA	Accusative	Dative	Genitive
1st	Singular		iċ	[ɪtʃ]	mec / mē	mē	mīn
	Dual		wit	[wɪt]	uncit	unc	uncer
	Plural		wē	[weː]	ūsic	ūs	ūser / ūre
2nd	Singular		þū	[θuː]	þec / þē	þē	þīn
	Dual		ġit	[jɪt]	incit	inc	incer
	Plural		ġē	[jeː]	ēowic	ēow	ēower
3rd	Singular	Masculine	hē	[heː]	hine	him	his
		Neuter	hit	[hɪt]	hit	him	his
		Feminine	hēo	[heːo]	hīe	hiere	hiere
	Plural		hīe	[hiːə]	hīe	heom	heora

Personal pronouns in Middle English
The Modern English is shown in italics below each Middle English pronoun

Person (gender)		Subject	Object	Possessive determiner	Possessive pronoun	Reflexive
Singular
First modern		ic / ich / I I	me / mi me	min / minen [pl.] my	min / mire / minre mine	min one / mi selven myself
Second modern (archaic)		þou / þu / tu / þeou you (thou)	þe you (thee)	þi / ti your (thy)	þin / þyn yours (thine)	þeself / þi selven yourself (thyself)
Third	Masculine modern	he he	him / hine him	his / hisse / hes his	his / hisse his	him-seluen himself
	Feminine modern	sche[o] / s[c]ho / ȝho she	heo / his / hie / hies / hire her	hio / heo / hire / heore her	- hers	heo-seolf herself
	Neuter modern	hit it	hit / him it	his its	his its	hit sulue itself
Plural
First modern		we we	us / ous us	ure[n] / our[e] / ures / urne our	oures ours	us self / ous silve ourselves
Second modern (archaic)		ȝe / ye you (ye)	eow / [ȝ]ou / ȝow / gu / you you	eower / [ȝ]ower / gur / [e]our your	youres yours	Ȝou self / ou selve yourselves
Third	From Old English	heo / he	his / heo[m]	heore / her	-	-
	From Old Norse	þa / þei / þeo / þo	þem / þo	þeir	-	þam-selue
	modern	they	them	their	theirs	themselves

Many other variations are noted in Middle English sources due to difference in spellings and pronunciations. See and A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 TO 1580, A. L. Mayhew, Walter W. Skeat, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1888.

Personal pronouns in Early Modern English

		Nominative	Oblique	Genitive	Possessive
1st person	singular	I	me	my/mine	mine
	plural	we	us	our	ours
2nd person	singular informal	thou	thee	thy/thine	thine
	plural or formal singular	ye, you	you	your	yours
3rd person	singular	he/she/it	him/her/it	his/her/his (it)	his/hers/his
	plural	they	them	their	theirs

See also

• Between you and I

Bibliography

• "Etymology of I". etymonline.com. Douglas Harper, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010.
• "Etymology of Me". etymonline.com. Douglas Harper, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010.
• Halleck, Elaine (editor). "Sum: Pronoun "I" again". LINGUIST List 9.253., n.p., Web. 20 Feb. 1998.
• Jacobsen, Martin (editor). "Sum: Pronoun 'I'". LINGUIST List 9.253., n.p., Web. 20 Feb. 1998.
• Mahoney, Nicole. "> Language Change". nsf.gov. n.p. 12 July 2008. Web. 21 Dec. 2010
• Wells, Edward. "Further Elucidation on the Capitalization of 'I' in English". (a paper in progress). Lingforum.com. n.p., Web. 25 Dec. 2010

Further reading

• .