Learn English – If I Were You and You Were I

conditionals

These are song lyrics, so there's poetic license–yes. However, it raises a grammar question that some friends and I have wondered about for years.

Song goes:

If for a moment I were you, and you were me, how would it be?
Would you fall apart as I walk by?
Hang around to catch my eye?
Be jealous of another guy?
If I were you and you were I?

It's the last line: is it wrong? If one can say, "If I were you," why can't he flip that around and write, "If you were I?" Does it have to be "If you were me?" Or is that even correct? "If me were you" certainly isn't right. So why is it correct (if it is correct) to say, "If you were me?"

Best Answer

I am the subject of the verb, but English treats me as an object. You can be used for both.

So OP's "reversal" principle doesn't really mean anything. If I say "I like you", I can't reverse it to *"You like I" any more than I can say *"Me like you" (unless I'm Tarzan talking to Jane).

In "If I were you", obviously "I" is the "subject" and "you" are (is?!) the "object". If you reverse the roles of the pronouns "I" becomes the object, so it has to be "If you were me"

See Are You and I You and Me? for further exploration of the issue.