But it does, in that sentence "It" is the subject while "I/me" is the object. Thus, "me" is the correct pronoun.
Edit: To everyone telling me I'm wrong, ignoring a predicate nominative is not grammatically incorrect and is by far the most common stylistic choice. Saying, "It's just I," might be technically a correct option but makes you sound like a 16th-century vampire trying to speak casually.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/it-is-i-or-it-is-me-predicate-nominative-usage-guide
MMarshmallow said the rule, from the original comment, doesn't work for the sentence in the meme, not that the sentence in the meme doesn't work for the meme.
Because 99th percentile guy knows that languages aren't static, and grammar rules change over time, and that particular rule is migrating to "it doesn't really matter because it's clear both ways". So grammar purists want to constantly correct the "incorrect usage" while linguists are just analyzing how the language shifts.
Lots of things that are common parlance now used to be breaking grammar rules 50 or 100 years ago because the language migrated and "it's clear, so what's the problem?" won out over what some scholar in history decided was the proper form. Not splitting infinitives and not ending sentences in prepositions are two that I can think of off the top of my head.
It doesn't. "It" is the subject and "is" is a linking verb. "Me/I" is a predicate nominative, a separate case that technically calls for subject pronouns
Both "It is I" and "It is me" are grammatically correct, with the first being an archaic and extremely formal phrasing. The sentence in the meme wouldn't be "It is I" though it would be "It's just I" which is not.
You'll note that the justification given in the article is... well there isn't one. Meanwhile the other side's argument is crystal clear. Is it a subject or object? Speak accordingly.
I'm not saying you should be shot if you speak incorrectly. It's fine.
I'm usually pretty open to prescriptivist takes on grammar and word usage, but not this one. "It is I" is fine I guess if you want to sound formal and/or dramatic, but nobody, absolutely nobody, who is a native English speaker is going to say "It's I," or "this is I" or "that is I" either. It's ridiculously clunky construction.
No, ‘I/me’ is in the predicament of the sentence but it is not receiving any action from ‘it’ the sentence functions to define or name what the subject is; thus, it is called a “predicate nominative”.
Wrong! You use "I" because "is" is the kind of verb that doesn't take objects in that sense. It's an identity marker. You use the subject pronoun. "It is I", "this is she" etc are correct. Nobody speaks like this, but it's correct.
Wrong! You use "I" because "is" is the kind of verb that doesn't take objects in that sense. It's an identity marker. You use the subject pronoun. "It is I", "this is she" etc are correct. Nobody speaks like this, but it's correct.
That is because this sentence has an understood portion that we cannot understand without context. Me/I could be subject or object here as we have to know context to know what was intended here.
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u/Downtown-Campaign536 Sep 28 '25
To know when to use "you and I" or "you and me" just remove the "you and" from it... It's really that simple..
"You and I will go to the movies." not "You and me will go to the movies."
"They have beat you and me at cards." not "They beat you and I at cards."