me

me — pronoun

1. the word you use to refer to yourself when someone else does something to you, o

1.pronounA1
Definition

the word you use to refer to yourself when someone else does something to you, or when your name follows words such as 'for', 'to', or 'with', and also when it follows the linking word 'be'.

Example

Min asked me to help her with the homework.

verb + me (direct object)

The big package arrived for me earlier this morning.

preposition + me (object of preposition)

Grammar Patterns

verb + me

preposition + me

be + me

Usage Note

In very formal writing, some people use 'I' after 'be' (e.g. 'It is I'), but 'It is me' is the standard choice in everyday English. In informal speech, 'me' sometimes replaces 'I' in compound subjects (e.g. 'Me and Hannah went to the park'), though teachers and style guides consider this incorrect.

Common Mistakes

Please send the letter to I.
Please send the letter to me.
After a preposition (to, for, with, etc.), use the object form 'me', not the subject form 'I'.
Hannah and me went to the cinema.
Hannah and I went to the cinema.
Use 'I' (not 'me') when the pronoun is part of the subject of the sentence.

me — noun

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: pronoun/1

'I' and 'me' are the subject and object forms of the same first-person pronoun. 'I' acts as the doer of the verb ('I saw the show'), while 'me' receives the action ('The show impressed me'). Learners often confuse them after prepositions: use 'me' after 'with', 'to', 'for' ('between you and me' not 'between you and I'). 'Myself' is a reflexive pronoun that refers back to the subject ('I hurt myself') or adds emphasis ('I built this myself'). It should NOT replace 'me' in object position ('Please send it to me' not 'to myself'), though many English speakers do this when unsure which form is correct. A simple test: if the pronoun follows a preposition or verb and refers to yourself, 'me' is almost always correct.

Ime ↗myself ↗

Common collocations

Phrases

Prepositions

  • for me
  • to me
  • with me
  • about me
  • between me

Etymology

Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-GermanicOld EnglishEnglish

The word 'me' comes from Old English 'mē', the dative (indirect object) and accusative (direct object) form of 'ic' (I). This goes back to Proto-Germanic '*miz' and further to the Proto-Indo-European root '*me-', the first-person singular pronoun. The musical-note sense 'me' (noun sense 1) has a separate origin — it comes from the first syllable of the Latin hymn phrase 'mira gestorum' in the Guidonian hand system, where syllables of a Latin hymn were used to name the notes of the scale.