A Best of The Grammar Diva Post
Okay, by now I am used to sentences like this:
Me and my wife went to the hockey game last night.
My friend gave the tickets to Sharon and I.
They are wrong uses of I and me, and I have just about given up letting it bother me.
But…..
The misuse (and overuse) of myself is driving me crazy. I hear it everywhere, said by educated, brilliant people. A well-known newsperson says this about her podcast: This podcast was created by “whoever” and myself.
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Myself, as well as all the other pronouns that end in –self (yourself, himself, themselves, etc.) are called intensive or reflexive pronouns, depending on how they are used. They either bounce back (reflect) to the I in the sentence, or they emphasize (intensify) the I that comes before them:
I baked their wedding cake myself. (reflexive)
You might not believe it, but I myself baked that beautiful wedding cake! (intensive)
And those are the only two uses for those pronouns. They are not used as subjects or objects. So these are all wrong:
Jose and myself are taking a vacation to the Keys. (should be I)
Those books were written by myself a long time ago. (should be me)
It is all up to you and myself. (should be me)
Generally speaking, you use myself when the subject of the sentence is I. Likewise, you use the other pronouns that end in –self if the pronoun matches the subject. These sentences are correct:
He went to the beach by himself.
The queen herself is coming for dinner.
The baby is learning to walk by herself.
Simple. If you can use I or me and it makes sense, that is the correct pronoun to use, not myself (or any other –self pronoun):
This pie was made by me. (Me makes sense, so don’t use myself).
She and I work at the same place. (I makes sense, so don’t use myself).
My best friend, who, with me, had Miss Martin (drill sergeant) for English class for two years, makes so many grammar mistakes that I have given up on trying to correct her and just cringe a lot “Myself” is a biggie, especially when she uses it before the names of others as in “Myself and Joe went to the movies.”
“Moot” is another whopper because she pronounces it as “mute.”
I feel your pain, believe me!
What do you do about granddaughters who are college graduates and now both in grad school who use me as a subject, ie “Me and Kim went shopping,” as a simple example?
I have corrected them all through their elementary and middle school years, but I have given up! Their parents don’t speak like that, and neither do I. As a Language Arts teacher for 25 years, it grates on my nerves!
It is probably not worth the argument at this point! I expect they would not use this in formal writing??????
My Best Friend goes CRAZY when she hears the -self mobile roll into town.
As a kindness, I forwarded your excellent piece to her.
Keep up the good work…
😎
Thank you!!!!