Margaret brought up a great point in the comments to my "I/me" quiz yesterday: What's with all these people using myself instead of I or me? It's maddening. F'rinstance:
- Please give the TPS reports to your supervisor or
myselfme. - The CEO, the CIO, and
myselfI all want to thank you for your hard work this year.
Wrong, wrong, wrong! The only cases in which you need to use a -self/-selves compound are these:
- Reflexively (referring back to oneself): He knows how to feed himself now. She treated herself to a massage. They cheated themselves out of a good time. (You can tell these are correct, because nothing else would work: He knows how to feed him/he now? No way.)
- For emphasis: I myself would never buy an SUV. You should learn to change a tire yourself. Never mind, I'll do it myself. (These work because you could remove the entire emphatic phrase and not lose any sense: I would never buy an SUV.)
- When referring to one's usual state: Don't mind him; he's not himself these days. Six weeks after the accident, and she's finally feeling herself again.
Don't misuse these words yourself!
I think people do it because htey're not sure whether to use "I" or "me."
Me got yesterdays' quiz right, BTW. But nobody was proctoring the exam, so me can't prove it. :)
Posted by: James | January 03, 2007 at 06:53 PM
Thank you! You're an angel. I knew it was wrong, but since I heard it constantly, I started to doubt MYSELF.
Posted by: Margaret | January 03, 2007 at 10:31 PM
Now we need a quiz about typing, because I can't seem to type the word "they" correctly.
Yikes!
-JP "Don't quiz me on spelling" Burke
Posted by: James | January 04, 2007 at 08:21 AM
Excuse me, but I seem to have accidentally wandered into grammar hell. Is there a way out?
Posted by: TwoBusy | January 04, 2007 at 09:18 AM
No. Mbwahahahahahaha!
Posted by: Karen | January 04, 2007 at 11:03 AM
What's most aggravating is that people on scripted tv make grammar mistakes ALL the time! Isn't anyone checking that stuff??
Posted by: Brooke | January 04, 2007 at 11:10 AM
I hear you on the "myself" thing! My good friend in college was an English major and prided herself on being very grammatically proper. I could never bring myself to tell her that she was butchering this one every single time she spoke in front of our sorority.
Next could you stop everyone from saying that they feel "badly"?
Posted by: Kerri | January 04, 2007 at 05:40 PM
Thank you! I myself was hoping you'd address this issue.
Posted by: leah | January 05, 2007 at 01:30 AM