The picnic was attended

by **Guest** Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:42 am

Hi guys ,

In this sentence

The picnic was attended by Jim and me ,

what is the subject ,

This sentence is written in passive form ,in which the subject of the sentence should be acted upon , thus the subject as according to me should be Jim and I , and thus the usage of me is incorrect

by **Guest** Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:46 pm

I believe the use of "me" is correct. "I" would only be correct if the sentence read "Jim and I attended the picnic". If the picninc is attended by someone, I do not think that person is performing the action.

by **StaceyKoprince** Thu Nov 13, 2008 8:23 pm

The subject is "the picnic." When you write in passive form, the construction means that the action (verb) is being performed on the subject, rather than by the subject. In an active construction, the action (verb) is being performed by the subject.

So, in this case, "me" is correct, because "Jim and me" is an object. They're performing the action, yes, but "Jim and me" would only be the subject if we related that with the active construction:
Jim and I attended the picnic.