Stop saying 'myself and...'

You're not wrong.

The other one that kills me (not as much as ‘myself and John’ though) is ‘Can you just take a minute and speak to that?’ This is an American podcast interview ‘thing’. I’m American. As far as I am aware, we speak about something. We speak to an object: a human, a dog, a cat. I even sing to my pets. But I’m going to speak ABOUT (not to! NOT to! About!) religious conflict in the Age of Enlightenment.
No I won’t ‘speak to that’, Oprah and Lex Fridman. I will speak about that.
I’m off on an angry dog walk now.
<someone will come along and tell me I’m wrong>

@Orangestheonlyfruit , it is more polite to say 'Fred and I...' than to say 'I and Fred...'.
'Me and Fred...' is incorrect as is 'Myself and Fred...'

Saying something like 'It happened to Fred and I' is incorrect, as is 'It happened to Fred and myself'.

Some people think that it's more polite to say 'Fred and I'. Incorrectly of course.

@Oneearringlost Yes, when I discussed the issue with a junior team member he said he'd do his best but it just didn't come naturally to say "you" instead of "yourself" as the latter felt more polite. He said plain old "you" felt like it was verging on "Oi, you!"

If that's true then a lot of people must find me very rude!

It's like 'You' is a dirty word.
A bit like 'Me', so many people use 'I' when it should be 'me'.

Quote

It's perfectly correct in Hiberno-English. It's a direct translation from the Irish language. Maybe those people you quite are Irish?

You’d become a national treasure!

This is one of the main reasons I had to stop watching The Apprentice.

If I ever go on The Traitors and get chosen as a Traitor then I solemnly swear that a Faithful who refers to themself as myself will be speedily dispatched.

I like to think that I am not alone…..

It was contagious on The Traitors round table! Argh! Make it stop.

I was watching The Apprentice last night and nearly chewed through my own arm in fury at the “ there is clues” and “there is situations” dialogue on the video the Supream (sic) Team made for their escape game. I was hoping Lord S or one of the others would pick up on it and be scathing, but they didn’t .

For £250,000 I would expect my apprentice to understand and apply simple rules of grammar.

See the steward of MJM Airways, Arthur Shappey (aka John Finnemore), in numerous episodes of "Cabin Pressure". He over-uses "myself", "yourself" and "may/might yourself" indiscriminately for humorous effect, though it's not funny any longer as this misuse has now entered what passes for normal daily speech.

You've got your rules confused. The one you cite is for when to use "we" or "us".

"Myself" is a reflexive pronoun and is used when you are doing something to, with, by, for etc yourself. Example, "I looked at myself in the mirror".

I call it mock posh :/

This is something a toddler might say in the very early stages of learning language as communication!

Within instead of in.

It's taken me 15 years to beat this out of my husband.

So true! I think they think it's more formal/businesslike/intelligent somehow. It's not.

It's not really regional, it is quite old fashioned though. It is a working class expression that was used widely but is now dying out. It's an informal/slang term and as such falls outside the rules of grammar. Rather like saying "I'm waiting for madam to get out of bed" when referring to your teenage daughter. "Him indoors" was also used in the same context. Anyone remember Arthur Daley and "her indoors"?

It's very rare that giving both barrels to someone working in customer services will find you on the moral high ground. I doubt she enjoyed trying to upsell you but she has to work to a script and she'd like to keep her (likely not very enjoyable) job. You could just say no thank you, no need to berate her for a choice that isn't hers and then criticise her grammar on top.

There are more important things than grammar, like civility.

@IKnowYouBetterThanThat , you use the reflexive pronoun when you already have referred to the pronoun. e.g. 'I wouldn't do it by myself' or 'Did you do it yourself'.

If you haven't referred to the pronoun(s), avoid using it.
If you say something like 'Could you address it to myself' is grammatically incorrect.

Other people using it incorrectly should not encourage you to do the same.

Yes that’s actually quite common as a jokey thing in the NW

I agree with you completely but it's getting difficult not to use 'myself' because so many people seem to think it is correct and I worry they will look down on me (or should that be look down on myself 🤣) for using 'me' or 'I'!

I joined this thread to bemoan the fact that even BBC news is abusing the reflexive pronoun but someone has already beaten me too it!

I'm a partner in a law firm and our (very bright and academic) trainees almost all do it! It looks particularly awful in a formal letter. I keep trying, I explain the rule and how it is used, I warn them that they are at risk of sounding like junior estate agents but I'm fighting a losing battle.

Many people are convinced that this is the more "proper" way to speak and that saying "me" or "I" looks too casual or slovenly. Yet the opposite is true!

<screams into the abyss>
@honeylulu I once told my line manager that she was spelling "tenants" incorrectly. We had a big discussion about it, as she was using it every day in emails to other professionals, formal letters, etc.. About three hours later, in our handover book 'The tennants have had a good day'.