I, me

   "It was a bizarre little scenario-the photographer and me ranged on one side, the petulant actor and his agent on the other" (Sunday Times). At least the next sentence didn't begin "Me turned to the actor and asked him . . ." Make it, obviously, "the photographer and I."

   Probably the most common problem with / and me, and certainly the most widely disputed, is deciding whether to write "It was I" or "It was me." The more liberal authorities are inclined to allow "It was me" on the argument that it is more colloquial and less affected, while the prescriptivists lean toward "It was I" on the indisputable grounds that it is more grammatical. A point generally overlooked by both sides is that "It is I" and like constructions are often somewhat graceless and wordy. Instead of writing "It was he who was nominated" or "It is she whom I love," why not simply say, "He was nominated" or "I love her"?

   Things become more troublesome still when a subordinate clause is influenced contradictorily by a personal pronoun and a relative pronoun, as here: "It is not you who is [are?] angry." Is is grammatically correct, but again the sentence would be less stilted if recast as "You are not the one who is angry" or "You aren't angry."

   See also it.