I versus Me

Here's what I was taught: Use the "case" of the pronoun that you would if the other person's name is taken out of the sentence. For instance, in your sentence, if you remove Jim, your two pronoun options give you:

1. I discussed the proposal that was sent.
2. Me discussed the proposal that was sent.

Most fluent speakers of English would say that #2 is ungrammatical. Therefore, according to the grammarians, the nominative case "I" is the proper form of the pronoun to use in your sentence when Jim is included.

Having said that, I am hearing more and more people speak sentences using the "me" form of the pronoun, rather than "I," when there is a conjoined phrase as you have in your sentence. So, once again, we are left with the question of how long do we wait and for what percentage of speakers before we language usage change as being "acceptable"?

This has already been discussed pretty thoroughly in this topic: http://www.painintheenglish.com/post.asp?id=398

Correct: "Jim and I discussed the proposal that was sent."

"I" is used when you are the subject, whereas "me" is used when you are an object.

Shouldn't the correct wording be "Everyone has been notified except Joan and me", instead of "Joan and I".

Wayne has it right on the money. Remove the first name and substitue I and me. If it makes sense that is the one that you use. In your example, you will be using I.

What Wayne has said is partially true.

This is the most definitive rule, to cover that issue.

use I when you are referring to the subject, and me when it is the object. Viz. Niti, Bill Gates and I went to lunch, and I paid.

But you will use me when it is the object.

Viz. Niti and Bill gates went to lunch, but they asked me for money.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/myself.html

Read the last para carefully.

So in effect: IT IS I is correct :)

Me think it is incorrect.
I think it is correct.

Me must say it is incorrect.
I must say it is correct.

But I am not sure about
" I and my shadow ........"

Ok here is my question. If i have a picture and want to who it is in the picture, would i say for example. " Sean and I" or "me and Sean".

The first listing is always the other person....always, "Sean and I," never "Me and Sean." Besides, Sean and I are the subjects, so Sean and I would still be correct.

I would for college educated supervisors who area always saying "Give it to Jim and I." When I is is "You give it to Jim and me."

All this may seem like quibbling, however there need be some rules for us to follow, otherwise we just all do what we want.

No, I don't think that we would "all do what we want" without explicit rules. Society exerts norms on grammar. Most languages have no writing systems or prescriptivists, and yet the speakers understand each other.

In answer to Sean's question, I would say that you would label it Sean and me. If it was just a picture of me, I would label it as such, not as a picture of I.

Sometimes "I" is correct, while at other times "me" is what's proper. It does, in fact, depend on which term you would use if your subject / object were singular.

For example, in the sentence,
"George and I are going to the store."

The term "I" is correct because if you were going alone, you would say "I am going to the store."

However, suppose in that same scenario you were inviting a third person to come along. In that sentence, you would say:

"Would you like to come with George and me?"

In this case, "me" is correct because, again, if you alone were inviting the extra person, you would say "Would you like to come with me?" You wouldn't say "Would you like to come with I?" So, in that case, the term "I" would be incorrect and "me" would be what is proper..

Therefore, your best bet is to simply determine which term would be correct if your subject / object was in singular form.

The bottom line is:

'I' is used when it's a subject while 'me' is used when it's an object.

How to know when it's a subject or an object? When it's followed by a verb, then it's a subject while if it's used after a preposition then it's an object; ie

George and I (subject) are going to the store.

Would you like to come with George and me? (object)

Not always.

Who's going to the store?
Not me!

We would not say "not I!" here. We say "me" even tho it is the subject.

John, I have to disagree. "me" or "not me" isn't a complete sentence, so it is not true that you are using "me" as the subject. You would say, "I am", not "me am". Also, while it's a little old fashioned, "not I" is also acceptable. Every English speaking child knows the story of Chicken Little: "Who will help me bake the bread? Not I, said the cat. Not I, said the pig..."

Partially agree to both.
That response is a phrase which if completed will have to be
'It is not I'. Similarly, in an affirmative tone 'It is I' (however, I would prefer to say either 'I am' or 'I am not').
Subject? Let’s see. Changing the word order from ‘It is I’ to ‘I am it’ (Awkward? How about ‘The winner was I’ from ‘I was the winner’) does not change the meaning of the sentence. Correct me if I am wrong but I would parallel this to an inverse copular sentence thus making ‘I’ equally a subject.
My only point is with a basic knowledge of subject and object in a sentence would be of great value in choosing between ‘I’ and ‘me’ in proper English setting.
Well, that’s just me. Oh! Did I just say that?

Yeah, porsche, I think you're right that it isn't the subject. But it isn't the object either. It's a disjunctive.

What is the subject? Jim and Me. Split it. Would you say, "Jim discussed the proposal...."? Sure, but would you say, "Me discussed ...."? Never. You have to use the subjective form since it's the subject. That means you have to use "I, not "me."

They awarded the prize to Ollie and me and both of us were really proud.
Is that correct