"Nobody will help you but me" vs. "Nobody will help you but I"

As has been shown in another question, in comparisons with than both the accusative and the nominative are possible and grammatical:

• He loves you more than I.
• He loves you more than me.

However, when we use but only the accusative seems possible:

Nobody will help you but me. [Not I]

What I think is that the nominative case could be justified as well.

Nobody will help you but I [will].

Why I am wrong? Any other examples and references will be appreciated.

Solution 1:

Nobody will help you but me and Nobody will help you, but I will are different constructions. In the first, but is a preposition and prepositions generally require the accusative form of the pronoun. In the second, but is a coordinating conjunction linking two clauses, of which the second has I as its subject.

Solution 2:

My dictionary hardly helps. It says that 'than' can act as a preposition, so that the word to which it refers is an object of the sentence, hence an object pronoun (e.g. 'me') is OK. However, 'than' is not a preposition but a logical connector, a word of comparison.

I wonder if the tendency to use object pronouns at the end of sentences is due to the influence of French on English.

I think completing the sentence in one's head is the only way to get the right pronoun and avoid confusion. Even then, we do not always have a choice of pronoun; e.g. 'I want it more than you' might mean 'I want it more than you do' or 'I want it more than I want you'. Hopefully, the context makes it clear!

Solution 3:

Folks - you're overthinking this. But me is correct.

But can be a conjunction (joining two sentences) or a preposition (followed by the objective case - me, her, him, and so on)

So: Joe is going to work, but I plan to stay home. CONJUNCTION (joining two sentences)

Everybody but me is going to the party. PREPOSITION

Let's do a comparison:

Everybody except me is going to the party.

If you look up except in a dictionary, you'll see that it's a preposition. It's followed by me. No problem, right?

But works the same way. (Remember, it wears two hats - it can be a conjunction or a preposition.)

Everybody but me is going to the party.

Done!