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(informal, with a conjunction, often proscribed)As the subject of a verb.
Me and my friends played a game.
literally all me and my astrophysicist colleagues could talk about.
Stella and me 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, whose sobriquet 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.
1899 July 20, Mrs. A J McKelway , “Children’s Department”, in A[lexander] J[effrey] McKelway, editor, Presbyterian Standard, volume XLI, number 28, Charlotte, N.C.: The Presbyterian Publishing Company, page 14, column 1:
Well he said me mustn’t eat ’nanas cause ’nanas would make me sick.
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.”
Usage notes
This section or entry lacks references or sources. Please help verify this information by adding appropriate citations. You can also discuss it at the Tea Room.
Me is traditionally described as the objective pronoun, meaning it is used as the object of verbs and prepositions, while the subjective pronoun I should be used as the subject 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.
Using me as the lone subject of a verb (without a conjunction, e.g. "me want", "me like") is a feature of various types of both pidgin English and that of infant English-learners, and is sometimes used by speakers of standard English for jocular effect (e.g. "me likee", "me wantee").
Although in some dialects 'me' is also used as a possessive, in writing, speakers of these dialects usually write my.
Some prescriptivists object to the use of me following the verb be, 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 two mes, you know.” “No. Nobody can be two mes.” “Well, which me 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.” “Which me do you know?” “The kindest, goodest, best me in the world,” answered Diamond, clinging to North Wind. […] “Do you know the other me as well?” “No. I can’t. I shouldn’t like to.” “There it is. You don’t know the other me. You are sure of one of them?” “Yes.” “And you are sure there can’t be two mes?” “Yes.” “Then the me you don’t know must be the same as the me you do know—else there would be two mes?” “Yes.” “Then the other me you don’t know must be as kind as the me 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 two mes?
“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 two mes?” / “Perhaps more than two.” / “It gets worse and worse. So which me do you actually love ?” / “All of them.” / “You’re being slippery.” Her lips curled slyly. “In fact you only love the me in your mind’s eye, and that me 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-armed me, could you stand that?”
From mi(“third note of a major scale”) + -e(“flat”), from Glover's solmization, Italianmi in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latinmīra in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.
-me is the full (plena) form of the pronoun. It is normally used after verbs ending with a consonant 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!
Tant me fa.(after adverb) ― I don't care.
Me sembla que…(sentence-initial, nonstandard) ― It seems that…
“me” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo
5) Archaic. Nowadays used for formal, literary or poetic purposes, and in fixed expressions. 6) To differentiate from the singular gij, gelle (object form elle) and variants are commonly used colloquially in Belgium. Archaic forms are gijlieden and gijlui ("you people").
Valeš, Miroslav (2021) Diccionariu de A Fala: lagarteiru, mañegu, valverdeñu (web), 2nd edition, Minde, Portugal: CIDLeS, published 2022, →ISBN
Finnish
Etymology
From Proto-Finnic*mek, from Proto-Uralic*me. The word is inflected as plural, but there is no plural marker in the nominative, except in dialects (met).
Mennäänkö meille? ― Should we go over to our place?
Usage notes
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 of minä(“I”)).
See this appendix for information on the dialectal variants of me.
Inflection
Irregular (inflectional stem mei-, as if in the plural). The comitative and instructive forms don't exist; the abessive is hardly used.
In addition to the standard set of cases, me and the other personal pronouns have a specific accusative form, meidät.
“me”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03
From Middle Frenchme, from Old Frenchme, from Latinmē (accusative of ego), from Proto-Indo-European*h₁me-(“me”). Northern dialects have preserved a form mi for the indirect object (also found in Old French in the Oaths of Strasbourg), from Latin mihi, dative singular of ego, through a Vulgar Latin *mi, whereas in standard French, it has merged into me.
As a clitic pronoun used before another clitic, it is pronounced unstressed and without syntactic 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/ (since a 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”, in Kyoto University Linguistic Research, volume 35, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 91–128
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
1Used preconsonantally or before h. 2Early 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. 4Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.
The reduced forms with an apostrophe are enclitic; 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 form hat is now rarely used. In reflexive use, only full object forms occur. Dual forms wat / unk and jat / junk are obsolete. Attributive and independent possessives are not distinguished in Mooring.
Lēofre mē is þæt iċ hīe selle þē þonne ōðrum menn. Wuna mid mē!
I'd rather give her to you than to someone else. Stay with me!
Usage notes
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.
From Latinmē, accusative of ego. As an indirect object pronoun, possibly in part from Latinmihi, dative singular of ego, through a Vulgar Latin*mi (compare the form mi in particular, found in early Old French in the Oaths of Strasbourg).
c.50 BC, The Buddha, Dhammapada(pāḷi), Yamakavagga, page 26; republished in The Eighteenth Book in the Suttanta-Pitaka: Khuddaka-Nikāya, Colombo, 2009:
1989, Giovanni Maria Cherchi, “Primabéra [Spring]”, in La poesia di l'althri [The poetry of others] (overall work in Italian and Sassarese), Sassari: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, page 13:
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
If le or les precedes lo, la, los, or las in a clause, it is replaced with se (e.g., Se lo dije instead of Le 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 của me 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. While mommy went away, did anyone hit you? Loulou, whee whee!"
V indicates the expected assimilated vowel of the following noun, following standard West Makian vowel harmony.
References
Clemens Voorhoeve (1982) The Makian languages and their neighbours, Pacific linguistics
White Hmong
Etymology
This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “From the same kind of sound-symbolic reasoning as Ancient Greekνᾶνος(nânos, “dwarf”)? This is so funny to think about LOL - words like "me" and "nano-" potentially coming from labial playground-tier teases like "neener meener neener"”
Heimbach, Ernest E. (1979) White Hmong — English Dictionary, SEAP Publications, →ISBN, pages 125-6.
Yola
Pronoun
me
Alternative form of mi
1867, “ABOUT AN OLD SOW GOING TO BE KILLED”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 106:
A plaauge apan Portheare! Hea'de luther me waal,
A plague upon Porter, he'd hide me well,
References
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, published 1867, page 106