Gretchen,

I can't answer "It is me" either.  "It is I" sounds almost Elizabethan.  But what do you say if you contract the verb?  I can't get "It's I" at all.  With contractions, at least for me, only "me" works.  And, of course, in speech we nearly always contract all the auxiliaries and copulas we can.

Herb


-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Gretchen Lee
Sent: Tue 9/25/2007 2:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: more teaching questions on grammar (singular "they")
 
 
In a message dated 9/25/2007 10:29:20 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

I  don't care which system wins out, but I wish we'd hit a firm consensus 
soon so  I can stop worrying that I'll get my students in trouble by teaching 
them the  wrong 


Bill,
 
In middle school, I teach this the same way you do, and I explain  to my 
students why the singular "their" is gaining acceptance.  It drives  them crazy.  
They want to view language as a simple set of rules that they  can learn and 
be done. The idea that they have to take audience into  consideration doesn't 
seem "fair" to them - that they might someday not get  a job or into a school 
of their choice because they misjudge an audience really  makes them angry.
 
My answer, "welcome to the real world," doesn't seem to help.   I try to help 
them sort it through, but they want me to give them set-in-stone  answers.  
 
~Gretchen, who still can't answer ""It is me" to the question "who  is it?"



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