To be worried that the word MYSELF might actually becone interchangeable with me or I?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

Yeah language evolves, but for farksake "myself and my husband went to the pub", "contact myself with any further queries" and so on.

This is an abundance of Wrong. And it hurts my head.

Didn't the OED add a new meaning to literally because of common usage of the word? This may happen to myself.

Myself is pissed off with the situation. What about yourselves?

'x and I went to the pub' is correct. You would say 'I went to the pub', so you'd also say 'X and I'.

You'd say 'do you want to come with (X and) me?' though.

RonSwansonsLushMoustache

You'd probably usually say 'do you want to come with us?' if you'd already established who 'us' was.

Reminds me of Joan Armatrading's fantastic song

I sit here by myself
And you know I love it
You know I don't want someone
To come pay a visit
I wanna be by myself
I came in this world alone
Me myself I

Sorry, I realised that that my example actually was correct, but what I mean't to say was that too often "me" sounds wrong even when it's right, so I never say for example "Me and X went to the pub" as it sounds funny to my ears. That's why I tend to use the passive form and use "I" instead.

I isn't the passive form.

'me and x went to the pub' is incorrect. The rule is that you use whatever you'd use if it were just you. You wouldn't say 'Me went to the pub'; you'd say 'I went to the pub'.

A passive form would be something awful like 'the pub was attended'.

Use 'x and I' where you could also use 'we'.
Use 'x and me' (or 'me and x') where you could also use 'us'.

I agree that the overuse of 'myself' comes from the me-I problem. I have asked a number of people about this, and several of them were under the impression that 'me and x' is always wrong.
Because they have this weird idea, they then try to avoid using the word 'me' in other contexts as well, and so use 'myself'.

Amazed at all the angst on here. To my Irish ears 'myself and John went to the pub' just sounds like a normal turn of phrase whereas 'John and I went to the pub' sounds terribly formal.

When did this bloody myself creep in? It wasn't around so much until recently and now it's everywhere!!! Aaaaahhhh

But Vintage formality is so important and standards have declined terribly since the war, don't you find?

But it's not that formality has declined. People across the UK attempting to sound formal by using myself incorrectly is the problem.

It might be different in Ireland, but here the informal way would be to err on the side of 'me and...'. People only reach for 'myself' when they're trying to sound fancier or cleverer than they actually are why is why there's an epidemic amongst estate agents.

For as long as I can remember I say 'me' instead of 'my', as in 'pass me beer over.'

I don't know why, SE England upbringing? I think it is quite common.

I have a boss who loves me, myself and I.

She manages to sling it into a number of meetings. It took us pedants ages to work out if she had done it properly (I say ages, I mean we considered it over a sip of coffee). The context was holidays and who books them:

"I booked a room just for me, myself, and I got a room with a lovely view."

But she does it a lot. We think she has a formula in her head and just throws it out there as and when she thinks it will work. Isn't she just the cleverest of clever things? Blech!

Well that's so true Fide. I hate this new habit of addressing people by their first name instead of Miss, Mr or Mrs - even when you've only known them for a few months.

Frightfully ill educated. I expect they're the type of people who buy their clothes off the peg and talk about 'toilets' and 'serviettes'.

I cannot tell you how happy this thread had made me! I thought I was alone in my obsessive hatred of this nonsense-speak.

The worst offense has to be using 'ourselves' instead of 'us' eg. 'Please send it to ourselves'. Vile.

I'm Irish. 'Myself and whoever' is used all the time. It mightn't be grammatically correct, but it's a normal mode of speech here. 'Whoever and I' on the other hand would be considered a bit hoity toity. I'm sure I've committed this crime on many threads, but I'm not trying to sound posh and intelligent, I'm just writing the way myself I and my neighbours, friends and colleagues speak.

I've only started hearing this recently, but it drives me mad when I do. The problem is that grammar just isn't taught in schools anymore. I finished secondary school 10 years ago, and even back then we had no formal grammar lessons that I can recall. I've had to teach myself, and as a result have a shelf of grammar books at home (although only Eats, Shoots and Leaves has been read cover-to-cover)!

I posted a while back when DH started to misuse myself:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1935904-DH-has-started-misusing-myself-like-hes-an-estate-agent-or-works-in-a-call-centre-WIBU-to-LTB?pg=1

I have taught the kids to be pedants and got them to hammer it out of him self.

I love it when said in an Irish or Scottish dialect way, Sounds really friendly.

I loathe it when used in a Hyacinth Bucket 'professional' way.

Just makes people sound stupid.

Must take issue with The problem is that grammar just isn't taught in schools anymore. though.

Because it is.

""X and I went to the pub" is fine. "Y came to the pub with X and I" is wrong."

John Torode on Masterchef keeps making this mistake. I can't remember the exact example, but he'll say something like: "Cook something nice for Greg and I". Grrrr.

By my understanding, it comes into Irish (and, to a lesser extent, Scottish) English as a translation from Gaelic. I get quite grumpy when people say dialect usages are 'wrong'.

In standard (English) English, it seems to be much more recent and to come from a misguided idea that 'me' or 'you' are somehow unfinished or vulgar. I do judge people who say it.

However, it is always a welcome addition to my arsenal of ways to make cold-callers leave me alone.