BE
USAGE NOTE: Traditional grammar requires the nominative form of the pronoun in the predicate of the verb be: It is I (not me); That must be they (not them), and so forth. Even literate speakers of Modern English have found the rule difficult to conform to, but the stigmatization of It is me is by now so deeply lodged among the canons of correctness that there is little likelihood that the construction will ever be entirely acceptable in formal writing. Adherence to the traditional rule in informal speech, however, has come to sound increasingly pedantic, and begins to sound absurd when the verb is contracted, as in It's we. · The traditional rule creates particular problems when the pronoun following be also functions as the object of a verb or preposition in a relative clause, as in It is not them/they that we have in mind when we talk about “crime in the streets” nowadays, where the plural pronoun serves as both the predicate of is and the object of have. In this example, 57 percent of the Usage Panel preferred the nominative form they, 33 percent preferred the accusative them, and 10 percent accepted both versions. But H.W. Fowler, like other authorities, argued that the use of the nominative here is an error caused by “the temptation . . . to assume, perhaps from hearing It is me corrected to It is I, that a subjective [nominative] case cannot be wrong after the verb to be.” Writers can usually find a way to avoid this problem: They are not the ones we have in mind, We have someone else in mind, and so on.
ME
The objective case of I. 1. Used as the direct object of a verb: He assisted me. 2. Used as the indirect object of a verb: They offered me a ride. 3. Used as the object of a preposition: This letter is addressed to me. 4. Informal. Used as a predicate nominative: It's me.
(the American Heritage Dictionary)
In modern spoken usage, English "to be" takes either a single nominative noun, a nominative noun and an accusative noun, a nominative noun and either a genitive pronoun or a noun phrase with a genitive clitic, or a nominative noun and a predicative adjective. Using "to be" with two nominative nouns is not reflective of modern usage whatsoever, and is highly conservative, almost to the point of being somewhat archaic, and is not suitable for most usage as a result. Whatever the "traditional rules" happen to be, they do not reflect modern usage whatsoever in this case.
On a more personal level, "It is I" sounds to me overly formal and conservative, almost to the point of sounding as if it were a hypercorrection. I myself would strongly prefer "It is me", as that fits the modern usage of "to be", as using two nominative case nouns has been replaced with using a nominative case noun and an accusative case noun with it. Today it fits into the same category as things like "They write code faster than I" and attempting to use "he" in a genderless animate singular fashion.
Yeah, I don't think I've hardly ever heard a native speaker say "it is I" in any normal conversational context. In terms of the spoken language, I'd go so far as to say something like "it is I" is incorrect, as no native speaker I know would naturally say that (that doesn't mean they don't exist, however...but at least here no one would ever say that, young or old).
English has largely moved towards using the nominative pronouns in few cases other than directly preceding a verb. This has historically happened in a lot of languages, French coming to mind. Compare "c'est lui" or "toi aussi" (not *"c'est il" or *"tu aussi") to Spanish "es él" and "tú, tambien."
But you cannot write IT'S ME in a formal paper.
Thankfully that issue's usually avoided because people rarely talk directly about themselves like that in a formal paper. Anyway, you can do as you please or as is necessary for a formal paper but that's highly tangential to the actual language, which is the spoken language, in which "it is I" is not ok.
"It's me" is common, but so is "This is she." "They write code faster than I" is presumably a contraction of "They write code faster than I do," but if the verb is missing, "than me" sounds okay.
As for formal papers, most people reviewing formal papers are likely to be less competent in English than I am, so I feel free to write in whichever way I choose.
I've seen many Americans who have prejudice toward grammatically correct usage. -It is I/she, Whom did you see?- are (hope)fully correct and should not be hated.
Grammarian wrote: "But you cannot write IT'S ME in a formal paper."
And your point is? Since when do we speak like we write?
"It is I." is not grammatically correct because "I" is not an object pronoun.
Yes, Someone, as modern English has abandoned the usage of two nominative nouns with "to be", and now uses one nominative noun and one accusative noun in the places of such, which of course makes "It is me" more preferable than "It is I", which today sounds overly formal and conservative, and makes anyone who actually /says/ such sound like an ass.
As for "This is she", I would very strongly prefer "This is her", and likewise, I would strongly prefer "They write code faster than me" over "They write code faster than I". One must throw away the old grammarians' rules, as the were not correct with respect to actual usage to start with, and are even less relevant today, with things like the change of the copula away from using two nominative case nouns to one nominative case and one accusative case noun and like.
I would definitely prefer "this is her" and "they write code faster than me." That's simply how it's done in real life conversational English. Just as Travis said, the old grammarians' rules on this matter were irrelevant to start with, having been largely based on Latin instead of how English was actually used.
If we accept IT'S ME we should accept SHE AIN'T as well for it is used by many Americans, and the number of people who use it is increasing.
Thankfully for all of our sakes, it doesn't matter one bit whether or not you "accept" it or not, it's going to continue to be spoken as is natural for the vast majority of native speakers (regardless of geographic origin, this goes back to the precolonial days of English..."it is me" has simply been around that long). You can personally reject the way native speakers express themselves naturally but don't expect to be lauded for that, or to be particuarly praised for adopting an artificial usage.
As for your laughably groundless comment on "ain't" (I can just see the headlines..."This just in! Americans now say 'ain't' 23% more than last year!")--this American in particular would be hard-pressed to tell you the last time he heard that word. And I've been to lots of different parts of the US as well as met Americans from all over. I would say I've been more likely to hear "ain't" from UK speakers I've met than Americans.
And...best part...who cares?! "Ain't" is a perfectly valid historical contraction of "am" and "not" (just like something like "will" and "not" are in "won't"), which has semantically spread to usage beyond negating the first-person singular copula.
Kess, sorry if that was too harsh...I just realized that the way you worded your post you could've just meant that in a somewhat descriptive way instead of deriding "it's me" or "ain't" as non-valid usages in English. I guess I've been hardened and have become immediately defensive having had to respond to posters like DJW/David Winters who generally don't know what they're talking about. So, if you meant it in a descriptive way, sorry...didn't mean to go all crazy on you. However, if you were deriding "it's me" and "ain't" then you can go right back to reading it with my original intended harsh tone :)
