“I” and “me” are very frequently misused, even by native speakers!
The main difference is that “I” is most often used as the SUBJECT and is found at the beginning of the sentence, whereas “me” is in the OBJECT position of the sentence.
I baked a cake for Tommy.
Tommy baked a cake for me.
I made him a card.
He made me a card.
The same is true, even when you have more than one subject or object in the sentence:
Joyce and I went to the zoo.
This is correct, Joyce and I are both the subjects.
Me and Joyce went to the zoo.
This is a very common mistake in spoken English, but it is not correct to use “me” here!
Can you give my sister and I a ride?
This is incorrect.
Can you give my sister and me a ride?
This is the correct form.
One tricky bit about “I” is that it is also a PREDICATE NOMINATIVE, which is used after the “to be” verb.
It wasn’t me.
This is grammatically incorrect, although this is how most people prefer to say it!
The correct form, although mostly only used in a more formal sense, should be:
It wasn’t I.
Author: Katy Lia, Cambly Tutor
If you’d like to keep this conversation going with Katy, give her a call on Cambly or make a reservation with her here: https://www.cambly.com/en/student/tutor/Katy%20Lia