Grammar: The Confusion Between 'Am' and 'I'm'

Using ‘am’ in place of ‘I’m’ is an unforgiveable grammatical blunder.

‘Am’ is an auxiliary verb. It is a form of the verb be. Other forms of the verb be are: is, are, was, were, being and been.

While, ‘I’m’ is the contracted form of the construction ‘I am’.

Let us look at the statements in italic below:

Is travelling to Lagos tomorrow.

Are talking to you.

Was wondering at the news.

I have no doubt that anyone can tell at first reading that the above statements are all grammatically incomplete, and therefore all wrong.

But some people will replace the underlined auxiliary verbs with ‘am’, without realising anything is wrong with the constructions. And you get:

Am travelling to Lagos tomorrow.

Am talking to you.

Am wondering at the news.

What they intend to write should correctly read:

I’m travelling to Lagos tomorrow.

I’m talking to you.

I’m wondering at the news.

I have often wondered why some people confused ‘am’ for ‘I’m’. After careful reasoning, it occurred to me that the confusion must have arisen from the inability of those who make the mistake to separate the pronunciation of ‘am’ from that of ‘I’m’.

For clarity purpose, below are the respective pronunciations of the confused pair of words.

‘Am’ is pronounced /æm/

‘I’m’ is pronounced /aɪm/ (Say the letter I, followed by the sound /m/).

So remember, the next time you want to write or say ‘I am coming’ in contracted form, it should be ‘I’m coming’, and not ‘am coming’.