Here you’ll find examples of “I” taken directly from published works. These real-life uses highlight how writers put the word into action and provide insight into its place in everyday writing.
Real Sentences for I
I am a very old man; how old I do not know.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
12 words, 43 characters
So far as I can recollect I have always been a man, a man of about thirty.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
17 words, 74 characters
My name is John Carter; I am better known as Captain Jack Carter of Virginia.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
15 words, 77 characters
When the war broke out he left us, nor did I see him again for some fifteen or sixteen years.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
20 words, 93 characters
They were in part peculiar indeed, but I have followed them to each last detail as faithfully as I was able.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
21 words, 108 characters
I trust I give no offence to the companion of my youth, in submitting this proposition to his cooler judgement?
Source: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
20 words, 111 characters
I had always been his favorite among the younger generation of Carters and so I hastened to comply with his demand.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
21 words, 115 characters
I have never told this story, nor shall mortal man see this manuscript until after I have passed over for eternity.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
21 words, 115 characters
I spent nearly a year prospecting in company with another Confederate officer, Captain James K. Powell of Richmonds.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
18 words, 116 characters
I was then a child of but five years, yet I well remember the tall, dark, smooth-faced, athletic man whom I called Uncle Jack.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
24 words, 126 characters
And because of this conviction I have determined to write down the story of the interesting periods of my life and of my death.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
24 words, 127 characters
It was agreed that I was to hold down our claim against the remote possibility of its being jumped by some wandering prospector.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
23 words, 128 characters
Possibly I am a hundred, possibly more; but I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men, nor do I remember any childhood.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
25 words, 130 characters
I thought at the time that he was praying, although I never understood that he was in the strict sense of the term a religious man.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
26 words, 131 characters
Left alone in the study, I opened the safe and withdrew the contents of the drawer in which he had told me I would find my instructions.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
27 words, 136 characters
I found the watchman who had discovered him, together with the local police chief and several townspeople, assembled in his little study.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
22 words, 138 characters
The instructions impressed upon me that I must personally see that this was carried out just as he directed, even in secrecy if necessary.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
24 words, 138 characters
In submitting Captain Carter’s strange manuscript to you in book form, I believe that a few words relative to this remarkable personality will be of interest.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
26 words, 158 characters
The Publishers of the Standard Novels, in selecting Frankenstein for one of their series, expressed a wish that I should furnish them with some account of the origin of the story.
Source: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
31 words, 179 characters
I am the more willing to comply, because I shall thus give a general answer to the question, so very frequently asked me—“How I, when a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?”
Source: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
42 words, 212 characters
It is true that I am very averse to bringing myself forward in print; but as my account will only appear as an appendage to a former production, and as it will be confined to such topics as have connection with my authorship alone, I can scarcely accuse myself of a personal intrusion.
Source: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
53 words, 285 characters
Upon my return to the United States a few months ago, after the extraordinary series of adventure in the South Seas and elsewhere, of which an account is given in the following pages, accident threw me into the society of several gentlemen in Richmond, VA, who felt deep interest in all matters relating to the regions I had visited, and who were constantly urging it upon me, as a duty, to give my narrative to the public.
Source: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
77 words, 423 characters
More examples coming soon.
