Personal Pronouns and Objects of Prepositions

Recently, Bree Walker, a former newscaster in Los Angeles, was being interviewed on radio. No longer in the television business, Ms. Walker involves herself in public awareness projects on a variety of subjects, particularly those surrounding disabilities. Asked how she chooses her projects, she responded, "The project chooses me instead of I it."

Ms. Walker should have used the objective case pronoun me in place of I because the pronoun follows a prepositional phrase commanding an object pronoun. Elliptically (inserting words not spoken but perhaps thought), Ms. Walker was probably thinking something like: I choose my projects." One could offer an argument that the entire, elliptical clause "I (choosing) it" serves as the object of the preposition, and operating within the clause is the subject pronoun I, but this would be a stretch in grammatical terms.

When it comes to inflecting pronouns for an ordained case, and particularly in English, the ear may become confused. As we have seen, such exalted types as Kobe Bryant and Prince William can't trust their ears on occasion either.

The rules are clear, and modern English, a language emphasizing vocabulary and syntax, still remains true to certain rules of more inflected languages. Therefore, those who can trust their ears and would have Ms. Walker say, "The project chooses me instead of me it" are correct. The prepositional phrase commands the use of the objective case pronoun following it. Any thought of the whole clause acting as object with the subjective case "I" in that object clause matters not. You might say, the ears have it, not the I's, at least for those who know the rules.