Help with Me vs Mí
I am confused as to when to use Me or Mí. I learned in 1.6 that Me = to Me but then I don´t understand ' Me llamo Zan¨. I hope someone can help me understand the difference.
14 Answers
me es un forma verbal reflexiva y mi es un pronome posesivo
jose dias said:
well it's easy you say me . i like this ... me gusta esto. and mi is when you say.....give ir to me
That's not the point: "gustar" is constructed differently from "like" in English, and "me" and "a mí" are compulsory, whereas "yo" wouldn't be possible for your sentence. You are not emphasizing, but constructing the sentence normally.
well it's easy you say me . i like this ... me gusta esto.
and mi is when you say.....give ir to me
Note, however, that "Me, too!" (as it usually used) is, at best, very informal (and I would expect that your friendly English teacher would say "incorrect"). In casual conversation, if your friend says "I want to see that movie." you may well reply "Me, too!" However, if you want to turn that into a "real" (i.e. complete) sentence, You're back to using the nominative ("I, too, want see it"). If you say "Me, too, want to see it!", you're either under 5-6 years old or you're not a native speaker.
In French, you could say "Moi, aussi, je veux le voir" (retaining the "moi") but the "je" is required and intimately tied to the verb. With French it would be odd to insert the "aussi" between the pronoun and the verb, as is possible in English.
For "Me, too!" t be really correct you'd require something like the following scenario: A group of people waiting to be chosen to play a game (i.e. to be on one side or the other) and you start jumping up and down yelling "Me, too!" However, in this case, you're using a contracted form of "Choose me, too!" and the pronoun is (and should be) in the accusative.
Janice said:
Can you tell me if in Spanish one generally uses the nominative, "yo," "tú," "ella," "él," etc., for emphasis or the other case (accusative') as we do in English in exclamations like "Me, too!" Would one say, "Yo, también," or "Me también" in Spanish?
You'll never hear any Spanish native saying "Me también" or "Mí también", at any age, from any educational background. If you do, this person is either a foreigner pretending to be a native, or has some sort of mental damage. It just doesn't happen; it is not natural in Spanish. No teacher at school would even consider checking whether the students know this at school: it has never happened.
And now the reason: Spanish emphasizes, not by using a different case in the personal pronouns, like English or French (according to your example, because I don't speak French), but by actually using the personal pronoun, which unlike in those two languages, is systematically omitted. We'd say "Yo también quiero comer" to emphasize, and "Quiero comer" normally.
James Santiago said:
It's the same in English. "He's the same as I am." not "He's the same as me." (wrong) Yes, and interestingly, although Spanish grammar and actual usage are often more logical than those of English, in the case of entre it is the other way around (at least as far as grammar goes). In Spanish we have to say "entre tú y yo," even though entre is a preposition and is therefore an exception to the rule, but in English we are supposed to follow the general rule and say "between you and me," although there are many people who don't understand their own language and say "between you and I."
My theory: Americans seem to think that there is a hierarchy of formality in me, I, and myself, in ascending order. We therefore hear police officers on the news saying things like "The suspect fired at Officer Jones and myself" because they are trying to speak formally in front of the camera. To their friends they would say "The perp shot at Jones and me," which ironically is more correct.
I have read that grammarians speak of "overcorrection" or "hyper correction" in the case of mistakes such as "between you and I" (...sensitive to the error, it bothers me to write it even in this context.). There's a lot written about this subject on the web; it bothers a lot of people, I guess. But the people who make the mistake are probably innocent enough -- just reacting to their parents' or kindergarten teachers' long-ago (for me, anyway) correction of sentences like "Me and Johnny are going out to play."
Can you tell me if in Spanish one generally uses the nominative, "yo," "tú," "ella," "él," etc., for emphasis or the other case (accusative') as we do in English in exclamations like "Me, too!" Would one say, "Yo, también," or "Me también" in Spanish? French, another Latin language uses "Moi aussi," but Italian and German both also use "I" in that phrase.
Boy, I hope I will be able to get used to saying "Entre tú y yo" 
James Santiago said:
In Spanish we have to say "entre tú y yo," even though entre is a preposition and is therefore an exception to the rule, but in English we are supposed to follow the general rule and say "between you and me," although there are many people who don't understand their own language and say "between you and I."
Morphologically it is a preposition, but syntactically, here acts as a mere intensifier. Prepositions in Spanish always follow other words, but this one does not behave like the rest, which is the reason why for many grammarians it is not even a preposition in these cases. There is another rule that says that the subject of a sentence cannot have a preposition (because of the nominative),... and then you come across this one. This "entre" does not follow any typical prepositional Spanish pattern in these cases.
It's the same in English.
"He's the same as I am."
not "He's the same as me." (wrong)
Yes, and interestingly, although Spanish grammar and actual usage are often more logical than those of English, in the case of entre it is the other way around (at least as far as grammar goes). In Spanish we have to say "entre tú y yo," even though entre is a preposition and is therefore an exception to the rule, but in English we are supposed to follow the general rule and say "between you and me," although there are many people who don't understand their own language and say "between you and I."
My theory: Americans seem to think that there is a hierarchy of formality in me, I, and myself, in ascending order. We therefore hear police officers on the news saying things like "The suspect fired at Officer Jones and myself" because they are trying to speak formally in front of the camera. To their friends they would say "The perp shot at Jones and me," which ironically is more correct.
lazarus1907 said:
Correct, but that's because they are used as intensifiers for grammatical subjects, and therefore you have to use the subject pronouns (or nominative). I was trying to avoid giving too much detail, since she seemed so happy with such a straight forward rule...
It's the same in English.
"He's the same as I am."
not "He's the same as me." (wrong)
Correct, but that's because they are used as intensifiers for grammatical subjects, and therefore you have to use the subject pronouns (or nominative). I was trying to avoid giving too much detail, since she seemed so happy with such a straight forward rule...
lazarus1907 said:
One little addendum to James' rule:
.... with prepositions, except "según" and "entre" (there is a reason for this, but don't ask).
But with those, neither "me" nor "mí" (object pronouns) would be used, right? It would be the subject pronoun (yo in this case). "Entre tú y yo," "Según tú," etc.
One little addendum to James' rule:
.... with prepositions, except "según" and "entre" (there is a reason for this, but don't ask).
Wow that sounds so simple. I have been working on this all morning. Gave up and posted the question. Thank so much for the rapid reply. Learned so much but have such a very long ways to go!
Here's a simple rule: Use "me" with verbs and "mí" with prepositions.
