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My friend and I got into an argument about English grammar, so I was hoping maybe you could help us out. Okay so we want to know if the following part of the sentence is correct, "People who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like I" rather than "People who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like me". I have already provided many sources to my friend showing that the first way is a formal and a grammatically correct way, however he wants an answer with this specific part of the sentence.

Please help us out

Thank you

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  • At the moment the question is flawed because, "People who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like I/me" is not a complete sentence. Examples of complete sentences:- "People who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like I do are happy." -- "I respect people who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like me." Both are correct but for different reasons. – chasly - supports Monica Oct 24 '15 at 1:34
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Like acts as a preposition, and its object takes the objective case if it is capable of encoding case.

People like me who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled ...
People who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like me ...

Like I occurs only when I is not the object of the preposition but merely the subject of a clause which is the object of a preposition.

People who are satisfied like I am ...
People who feel self-fulfilled like I do ...

In formal registers, however, you should be using as here, rather than like.

People who are satisfied, as I am ...
People who feel self-fulfilled, as I do ...

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  • So which one uses the correct like I or like me. The first one "People who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like I would focus on the content rather than themselves." Or the second version "People who are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled like me would focus on the content rather than themselves." – Arthur Oct 17 '13 at 23:02
  • @Arthur: Have you read the answer? This is really the perfect answer, would buy again, 1+. – Cerberus_Reinstate_Monica Oct 17 '13 at 23:21
  • @arthur In OP's example I is not the subject of a verb, so it must be me – StoneyB on hiatus Oct 17 '13 at 23:55
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The definitive answer, from an English language corpus is very clear: your friend is wrong. like me. is at least 1000 times more prevalent than like I.

So where did your friend get his crazy ideas from?

Very roughly speaking, the rule in "natural" English is that you only use I before a verb. In other situations, revert to me.

It's me! I'm over here!

He is taller than me.

He is taller than I am.

One day, me and my dog went for a walk.

I went for a walk with my dog.

In formal contexts, the influence of 18th century Latin-influenced grammarians has crept in, and there are still authorities who advise people to write like this:

It is I!

(never It's I, because It's would be sloppy and vulgar)

He is taller than I.

(many people will tell you that this is the correct because taller than I is an abbreviation for taller than I am)

My dog and I went for a walk.

(never I and my dog, because it would be rude to put yourself before your dog, apparently)

You can probably tell that I don't think much of this version of English grammar. But there you have it.

So it may be that one of these Latin-freaks has advised your friend to use like I. Or maybe your friend has taken the justification for writing He is taller than I., and applied it to He is tall, like I. Well ... at least he's trying to apply the rules consistently.

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  • 'Tis I is an archaic alternative to It is I. – Merk Oct 18 '13 at 8:24
  • In your ngram you placed a full-stop after the entries thus creating a false result. Here is what the graph should actually look like books.google.com/ngrams/… -- In fact it is the context that decides which is correct at any given time. See the examples in my comment under the question. – chasly - supports Monica Oct 24 '15 at 1:37

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