Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Me, Myself and Yourselfs

117 replies

CactusMactus · 22/01/2024 10:21

Can't watch The Traitors anymore because everyone says "myself" when they mean 'me" and yourself/s" when they mean "you". Driving me (myself?) up the bloody wall!

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
guestusername · 27/01/2024 12:31

I used to get this a lot with people ringing me at work. “I was told to ring yourself about a letter”… I would deliberately say back to them incorrectly so they could hear exactly how they sounded “myself sent a letter to yourself” purely because it gave me slightly evil pleasure to do so 😂

I have changed jobs now so thankfully it isn’t so much of an irritant now!

OchonAgusOchonOh · 27/01/2024 11:40

Filletofcheddar · 27/01/2024 11:04

It might be wrong, but people using 'between you and I' are in good company at least. Shakespeare used it, for example.

In fairness, Antonio was not exactly the brightest of characters.

viques · 27/01/2024 11:16

OchonAgusOchonOh · 23/01/2024 08:34

Can i also add "I was sat/stood" into the mix?

No you weren't. You were sitting/standing. This has been used in England for years but it's started to creep in here in Ireland recently. I blame British TV.

And lie /lay.

Looking at you Snow Patrol!

Filletofcheddar · 27/01/2024 11:04

It might be wrong, but people using 'between you and I' are in good company at least. Shakespeare used it, for example.

Ilovecleaning · 26/01/2024 23:03

I cringe when I hear ‘I’ used when it should be ‘me’

  • between you and I - 🤮
  • my boss invited wife and I - 🤮
  • he explained to Fred and I - 🤮
And they think they are so correct! 🤮🤮🤮
lieselotte · 26/01/2024 17:19

Rogley · 23/01/2024 14:03

One of my colleagues sent an email today saying 'I have been trying to get hold of yourself to discuss this'

What the absolute fuck. Where did that even come from!? On what planet does that sound correct? It made me cringe that this is in a professional email to a client

On the plus side, your colleague didn't say "I've been reaching out"

Grin
lieselotte · 26/01/2024 17:18

I actually think that the SWR train guards have a script for their announcements which includes the wording "contact myself the guard or another member of train crew".

Occasionally they depart from the ungrammatical script and say "please contact me".

DarkRipePlum · 23/01/2024 16:39

Bookist · 23/01/2024 16:35

I see your supposed incorrect use of 'me' and raise you my ex boss insisting I remove all the commas in the letter I'd drafted for him 'because they look messy.'

I was a privately educated, English graduate who studied linguistics at post-grad level. My boss....................hadn't.

😂😂😂

Bookist · 23/01/2024 16:35

DarkRipePlum · 23/01/2024 15:32

Yep. I’m hired in my job because of my English yet one of the bosses decided it was the hill he was going to die on when I corrected it to ‘me’ in a letter. He doesn’t even have GCSE English!

I see your supposed incorrect use of 'me' and raise you my ex boss insisting I remove all the commas in the letter I'd drafted for him 'because they look messy.'

I was a privately educated, English graduate who studied linguistics at post-grad level. My boss....................hadn't.

itsmylife7 · 23/01/2024 16:22

Another one here who can't understand how and WHY it is everywhere.

Movinghouseatlast · 23/01/2024 15:56

It is so fucking irritating. Honestly, it drives me mad. Where has it come from?

I have to confess to giving someone feedback at work about it...

imhavinghoops · 23/01/2024 15:52

KC3 used 'myself' incorrectly in his first Christmas Day speech and it made me wince.

Isittimeformynapyet · 23/01/2024 15:34

How nice that this thread hasn't been hijacked by those selves telling us to get a life 😀

DarkRipePlum · 23/01/2024 15:32

Yep. I’m hired in my job because of my English yet one of the bosses decided it was the hill he was going to die on when I corrected it to ‘me’ in a letter. He doesn’t even have GCSE English!

OchonAgusOchonOh · 23/01/2024 15:31

@Blubbledand it's also usually mehself and yerself rather than myself and yourself.

I'm particularly partial to "It's yerself is it?"

SkySecret · 23/01/2024 15:30

*That's colloquial Scottish (Glaswegian?)

Again I don't mind that.

It sounds ridiculous with a London accent*

@Nanny0gg yes, I always had it down as a Scottish thing. Still wrong, but can kinda accept it as a dialect thing. But it’s suddenly become VERY widespread and it makes me rage! It doesn’t even sound right 😬

Blubbled · 23/01/2024 15:27

@OchonAgusOchonOh I live in Ireland and yes, it's used much more in Hiberno-English, though like you say, there are rules.
It's common for people to refer to their SO as "Herself/Himself" e.g. "Herself and myself went down to the pub for a few" and to refer to others as " Yourself " e.g. "Go and have a lie down for Yourself?".
Hiberno-English is often directly translated from the Irish and different rules apply.

Notmetoo · 23/01/2024 14:22

Isittimeformynapyet · 23/01/2024 09:30

So if Steve couldn't make it would you say "it will be I attending the meeting"?

In an email I would say 'I will attend the meeting' Not me will attend the meeting.
If responding verbally and asked who will attend the meeting I might say me, or I will. Both are correct.
So depending on the context both sentences are correct ' Steve and I will attend' ' ' it will be me and Steve who attend'
But never myself and Steve!

Lovetotravel123 · 23/01/2024 14:16

Totally agree! What’s really annoying in my work is that the senior person there does this and so other people follow, even when I use it correctly.

OchonAgusOchonOh · 23/01/2024 14:14

VickyEadieofThigh · 23/01/2024 14:12

"Do you want to come to town with Jo and me?" It's easy - just imagine what you'd say if Jo were not coming along.

It does my heart good to see people using me correctly instead of the ubiquitous "I".

OchonAgusOchonOh · 23/01/2024 14:13

Nanny0gg · 23/01/2024 14:11

Jo and I are going to town. Would you like to come?

😊

😂

VickyEadieofThigh · 23/01/2024 14:12

OchonAgusOchonOh · 23/01/2024 14:06

And what about if you are asking someone to join you and Jo going to town?

Which is of course the question I should have asked in the first place😀

"Do you want to come to town with Jo and me?" It's easy - just imagine what you'd say if Jo were not coming along.

Nanny0gg · 23/01/2024 14:11

OchonAgusOchonOh · 23/01/2024 14:06

And what about if you are asking someone to join you and Jo going to town?

Which is of course the question I should have asked in the first place😀

Jo and I are going to town. Would you like to come?

😊

VickyEadieofThigh · 23/01/2024 14:10

mn29 · 22/01/2024 10:25

Drives me mad too. It’s not just on the traitors, it’s everywhere. I think people use yourself/myself to try and sound more intelligent but most of the time their use is incorrect so the opposite is true.

Edited

I've heard atrocities such as "Give it to myself" on courses and each time, it's made me want to just leave!

OchonAgusOchonOh · 23/01/2024 14:06

Nanny0gg · 23/01/2024 14:01

I am going to town.
Jo and I are going to town.

And what about if you are asking someone to join you and Jo going to town?

Which is of course the question I should have asked in the first place😀