(informal, with a conjunction, often proscribed)As the subject of a verb.
Me and my friends played a game.
[It was] literally allme and my astrophysicist colleagues could talk about.
Stella andme have opted to take a course called 'Autobiography and Fiction'.
(nonstandard, not with a conjunction)As the subject of a verb. Sometimes used to indicate or imitate limited English fluency.
1844,Charles Wilkes,Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, volume II:
One of them, whosesobriquet was Big-headed Blackboy, was stretched out before the fire, and no answer could be obtained from him, but a drawling repetition, in grunts of displeasure, of "Bel (not)me want to go.
Whoa! That was about the coolest thing ever!Me gotta see that again.
(nonstandard, in apposition)Would be the subject of a copula in standard English, though the copula is omitted; used to indicate or imitate limited English fluency.
The words do not occur in the film itself, nor in the original book by Burroughs. Instead, Tarzan says “Tarzan” and “Jane” repeatedly.
1954 February 3, Mrs. John F. Underhill, “The Last Leaf; Chapter Three: Bear Tracks”, in Lawrence Maxwell, editor,Junior Guide, volume 2, number 5, Washington, D.C.,page 7, column 2:
May opened the door, and a huge Indian walked into the room. “Me Bear Tracks,” he said. “Me hungry.”
This section or entry lacks references or sources. Please help verify this information by adding appropriatecitations. You can also discuss it at theTea Room.
Me is traditionally described as theobjective pronoun, meaning it is used as theobject of verbs and prepositions, while thesubjective pronounI should be used as thesubject of verbs. However, "objective" pronouns are widely used as the subject of verbs in colloquial speech when they are accompanied by a conjunction, for example,"me and her are friends". This usage is traditionally considered incorrect, and"she and I are friends" is the prescriptive construction.
Usingme as the lone subject of a verb (without a conjunction, e.g."me want","me like") is a feature of various types of bothpidgin English and that ofinfant English-learners, and is sometimes used by speakers of standard English forjocular effect (e.g."me likee","me wantee").
Although in some dialects 'me' is also used as apossessive, in writing, speakers of these dialects usually writemy.
Some prescriptivists object to the use ofme following the verbbe, as in"It wasn't me". The phrase"It was not I" is prescribed as correct, though this may be seen as extreme and used for jocular effect.
“Quite easily. Here you are taking care of a poor little boy with one arm, and there you are sinking a ship with the other. It can’t be like you.” “Ah, but which is me? I can’t be twomes, you know.” “No. Nobody can be twomes.” “Well, whichme is me?” “Now I must think. There looks to be two.” “Yes. That’s the very point—You can’t be knowing the thing you don’t know, can you?” “No.” “Whichme do you know?” “The kindest, goodest, bestme in the world,” answered Diamond, clinging to North Wind.[…] “Do you know the otherme as well?” “No. I can’t. I shouldn’t like to.” “There it is. You don’t know the otherme. You are sure of one of them?” “Yes.” “And you are sure there can’t be twomes?” “Yes.” “Then theme you don’t know must be the same as theme you do know—else there would be twomes?” “Yes.” “Then the otherme you don’t know must be as kind as theme you do know?”
The question seems unanswerable, because if those same atoms were to be collected as they leave my body as waste in the normal process of metabolism, and in a year when my body contained all new atoms, those old atoms which were me a year ago were reformed into an exact replica of me down to the last thought and cell, would there be twomes?
“In these last few days I keep feeling that I’m changing, changing into something I don’t quite recognize myself.” / “You’ve become more like yourself.” / “Could there be twomes?” / “Perhaps more than two.” / “It gets worse and worse. So whichme do you actually love ?” / “All of them.” / “You’re being slippery.” Her lips curled slyly. “In fact you only love theme in your mind’s eye, and thatme doesn’t exist, right?” / “No, that’s the combination of all the yous.” / She laughed. “It’s just as complicated as a mathematical calculation, if you end up with the three-headed, six-armedme, could you stand that?”
Frommi(“third note of a major scale”) +-e(“flat”), from Glover'ssolmization,Italianmi in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable ofLatinmīra in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymnUt queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.
-me is the full (plena) form of the pronoun. It is normally used after verbs ending with aconsonant or ⟨u⟩, or between some adverbs/pronouns and a verb. In some varieties of Catalan (Balearic/Valencian) it can also occur in sentence-initial position.
Segueix-me! ―Follow me!
Tantme fa.(after adverb) ―I don't care.
Me sembla que…(sentence-initial, nonstandard) ―It seems that…
“me” inMartalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974)Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo
1) Not as common in written language. 2) Inflected as anadjective. 3) Inprescriptivist use, used only as direct object (accusative). 4) Inprescriptivist use, used only as indirect object (dative). 5) Archaic. Nowadays used for formal, literary or poetic purposes, and in fixed expressions. 6) To differentiate from the singulargij,gelle (object formelle) and variants are commonly used colloquially in Belgium. Archaic forms aregijlieden andgijlui ("you people").
7)Zich is preferred if the reflexive pronoun immediately follows the subject pronounu, e.g.Meldt u zich aan! 'Log in!', and if the subject pronounu is used with a verb form that is identical with the third person singular but different from the informal second person singular, e.g.U heeft zich aangemeld. 'You have logged in.' Onlyu can be used in an imperative if the subject pronoun is not overt, e.g.Meld u aan! 'Log in!', whereu is the reflexive pronoun. Otherwise, bothu andzich are equally possible, e.g.U meldt u/zich aan. 'You log in.'
When the verb shows both the person and the number, the pronoun may be left out in written Finnish and is usually only used for emphasis. However, the inflected forms are often used. In colloquial Finnish, the pronoun is almost always used, even with a verb. (compare the usage ofminä(“I”)).
Seethis appendix for information on the dialectal variants ofme.
“me”, inKielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][5] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki:Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland),2004–, retrieved2023-07-03
FromMiddle Frenchme, fromOld Frenchme, fromLatinmē (accusative ofego), fromProto-Indo-European*h₁me-(“me”). Northern dialects have preserved a formmi for the indirect object (also found in Old French in the Oaths of Strasbourg), from Latinmihi, dative singular ofego, through a Vulgar Latin*mi, whereas in standard French, it has merged intome.
1On can also function as a first person plural (although agreeing with third person singular verb forms). 2Vous is also used as the polite singular form. 3Ils andeux are also used when a group has a mixture of masculine and feminine members. 4 These forms are also used as third person plural reflexive.
As a clitic pronoun used before another clitic, it is pronounced unstressed and withoutsyntactic gemination of the following consonant, e.g.menevado(“I'm going away”)/me ne ˈvado/. As a disjunctive pronoun used after a preposition, it is pronounced stressed and with syntactic gemination, e.g.amepiace(“I like him/her/it”)/a‿mˌme‿pˈpjatʃe/ (sincea also triggers syntactic gemination).
Third person pronominal forms used as formal terms of address to refer to second person subjects (with the first letter frequently capitalised as a sign of respect, and to distinguish them from third person subjects). Unlike the singular forms, the plural forms are mostly antiquated terms of formal address in the modern language, and second person plural pronouns are almost always used instead.
2
Also used as indefinite pronoun meaning “one”, and to form the passive.
Kurabe, Keita (2016 December 31) “Phonology of Burmese loanwords in Jinghpaw”, inKyoto University Linguistic Research[6], volume35,→DOI,→ISSN, pages91–128
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the criticaltonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
1 Used preconsonantally or beforeh. 2 Early or dialectal. 3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third person dual forms in Middle English. 4 Sometimes used as a formal 2nd person singular.
The reduced forms with an apostrophe areenclitic; they immediately follow verbs or conjunctions.Dü is deleted altogether in such contexts. Et is not enclitic and can stand in any unstressed position; the full subject formhat is now rarely used. Inreflexive use, only full object forms occur. Dual formswat / unk andjat / junk are obsolete. Attributive and independent possessives are not distinguished in Mooring.
Was originally only dative/instrumental, but by the literary period is also the accusative form in West Saxon. The Anglian dialects have retained the inherited accusative form,mec.
FromLatinmē, accusative ofego. As an indirect object pronoun, possibly in part fromLatinmihi, dative singular ofego, through aVulgar Latin*mi (compare the formmi in particular, found in early Old French in the Oaths of Strasbourg).
1989, Giovanni Maria Cherchi, “Primabéra [Spring]”, inLa poesia di l'althri [The poetry of others] (overall work in Italian and Sassarese), Sassari: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, page13:
Like other masculine Spanish words, masculine Spanish pronouns can be used when the gender of the subject is unknown or when the subject is plural and of mixed gender.
Treated as if it were third-person for purposes of conjugation and reflexivity
Ifle orles precedeslo,la,los, orlas in a clause, it is replaced withse (e.g.,Se lo dije instead ofLe lo dije)
Depending on the implicit gender of the object being referred to
Bà chủ vừa đặt con chó xuống vừa nhanh nhẩu nói: – À cậu tắm ! Cậu củame ngoan.Me đi vắng, ở nhà có đứa nào đánh cậu không ? Loulou Huýt! Huýt...
The mistress of the house set down the dog and promptly said, "Ah, you are bathing!Mommy's son is nice. Whilemommy went away, did anyone hit you? Loulou, whee whee!"
Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium. Particularly: “From the same kind of sound-symbolic reasoning asAncient Greekνᾶνος(nânos,“dwarf”)?”
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor,A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867,page106
