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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Me, Myself and I

113 replies

MatildaTheGreat · 02/02/2019 08:23

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that posters are suddenly referring to themselves as myself rather than me or I?

Myself and my partner were going out...

They gave it to myself and dd...

I don’t know why it enrages me so.

OP posts:
longwayoff · 02/02/2019 14:53

Quite huggles. If you're being employed by someone more ignorant than yourself, they'll rarely thank you for pointing it out. Let them get on with their superior knowledge whilst others snigger behind their backs.

SauvignonBlanche · 02/02/2019 14:55

I have a colleague who emails me a couple of times a week and always manages to get ‘myself’ into the message. Hmm She always spells my name wrong too but I know she has dyslexia so never say anything.

TheQueenSnortsAvocados · 02/02/2019 15:01

If you're being employed by someone more ignorant than yourself...

More ignorant than you.

tillytrotter1 · 02/02/2019 15:03

I recall almost pranging the car on the way to my teaching job when I heard the late Chris Woodhead, then head of Ofsted, being interviewed about the short-comings of schools in which he said 'Me and him decided........'.
If you're not sure about me or I then put into the singular and use the same thing, we all know when to use I or me, at least we should!

tillytrotter1 · 02/02/2019 15:04

“My partner and I are going on holiday” is right, even if it does sound a bit pretentious! But normally if someone said “who’s going on the trip?” the response would be “My partner and me”, which is both correct, less pretentious sounding and shorter

Utter rubbish, refer to my previous post regarding I and me.

ILikeyourHairyHands · 02/02/2019 15:13

There's a great little rhyme if you're struggling with 'you and I' or 'you and me'.

You and I are WE
US is you and me.

So if you say the sentence in your head, substitute us or we for the you and I and it will become clear which one to use.

00Sassy · 02/02/2019 15:25

This drives me mad!
An ex colleague of mine used to use ‘myself’ all the time. It was a call centre type job so I heard it a lot. She also used to say ‘currently’ and ‘at the moment’ in the same sentence ‘Mr Boss Man is currently in a meeting at the moment so would you like to leave a message with myself?’ Hmm

futuredayspast · 02/02/2019 15:28

I will argue until the cows come home that language is created by its users not by people who write dictionaries and grammar textbooks but this is the one thing that really winds me up.

In my first proper office job I had my emails frequently "corrected" to inappropriate myselfs by several thick colleagues and the rage has never quite left me. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT MYSELF SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUERIES AngryAngryAngry

longwayoff · 02/02/2019 15:28

Oh queen! Whatever can you mean?Wink

daisypond · 02/02/2019 15:31

No! It would only be “my partner and I” if there was also a verb. Otherwise it’s “my partner and me”. - No! It's still "my partner" and I! The verb is implied. My partner and I are still the subjects. Me can never be the subject of the sentence. I is the subject pronoun.

ElfrideSwancourt · 02/02/2019 15:55

I nearly started a thread about this today because I noticed it on several threads and it bugs me so much.

My previous headteacher frequently misused 'myself' it just made him sound pompous (he was).

thesockgap · 02/02/2019 16:32

Only today I have noticed two Facebook friends posting statuses along the lines of "Myself and John would like to thank everyone for their kind wishes" and "Happy birthday Mum, love from Anne, Dave and I"
Firstly: myself? Where has that even come from? I don't recall ever noticing anyone saying it in pre-Facebook days!
Secondly: our English teacher in first year seniors always drummed it into us that the correct term would be what it was without the other person. So, if you would say "give it to me" then you should say "give it to John and me". If it was say "I am going to town" it should be "Sarah and I are going to town". Not that difficult to remember surely? So in the instance above would the correct wording be "Happy birthday from I" ?? No!
I know I'm a bit of a grammar pedant, but it's such a simple thing!

Original poster
MatildaTheGreat · 02/02/2019 22:33

@thesockgap are you a fan of coupling?

OP posts:
thesockgap · 02/02/2019 23:20

@MatildaTheGreat yes, did my username give it away??!!!
Only yesterday I had occasion to say to DH, "you're a naked man in socks!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

BuilderEtiquette · 03/02/2019 00:15

I silently correct people’s grammar in my head, and will do until the day I die.

I really try hard not to judge people for poor grammar though; most of the time they are not deliberately putting on airs and graces, they just haven’t had the privilege of the education I have. It doesn’t make them any less intelligent.

(I still scream internally though.)

Hugglessnuggles · 03/02/2019 00:22

@longwayoff Lol and yes the sniggers happened frequently. This was the manager that asked me to do work over several months, and I later found out he’d been presenting to a Director as his own work. Strangely he was found out 🤷🏻‍♀️😉 and I took his job! 🤣

Bloodybridget · 03/02/2019 01:45

The English language is brutally slaughtered on MN, that's for sure. Pencreed while 'me and my husband'
might be an acceptable answer to 'who's going on holiday?', it certainly isn't correct grammar. As a pp said, the verb 'are' is implied. You wouldn't say 'us are', or 'me am'. And while I'm on the subject: I used instead of me: 'MIL gave DH and I a gift voucher' aargh!

Stillme1 · 03/02/2019 01:51

The Queen is in full charge of the Queen's English.

She always says "My husband and I". Never me and him. Not myself and himself. Or even worse "Us yins"

I can hardly keep my face straight when someone say "myself" trying to sound efficient or in charge.

longwayoff · 03/02/2019 06:26

Huggles, nice work. Congratulations Smile

Fifthtimelucky · 03/02/2019 08:13

I hate this too, but unfortunately it is is not a recent occurrence. I was correcting the misuse of 'myself' at work at least 25 years ago (it was part of my job to check other people's written material).

My theory is that people started thinking it was more official sounding, and since then it has become so common that other people assume it is correct.

I was more shocked when a friend said eg 'someone gave used 'Fifth and I'

Fifthtimelucky · 03/02/2019 08:20

Sorry. Hit post before ready.

Friend said ' Someone gave something to Fifth and I'. I teased her about it, saying that surely as a teacher she should get this right. She was quite shocked and reminded me that at primary school people were always being corrected for saying 'Fifth and me went ...' so it was correct to use 'I'.

I explained and she simply hadn't realised that sometimes 'X are I' was right, and sometimes 'X and me' was.

We went to the same primary and secondary school, and at this point we were in our 30s.

tinstar · 03/02/2019 09:37

I'm in my 50s and do feel the misuse of 'myself' is much much more widespread than it used to be.

I blame social media and people copying mistakes. But if you try and correct anyone on here the cries of, 'grammar police! Pedant!' etc go up. Of course it's impossible not to sound condescending when correcting someone's grammar, But I don't always believe the defence of autocorrect or 'I can get it right when I need to'. I normally don't say anything but couldn't resist myself on a "How old was you when ...." thread and immediately got the 'there's always one isn't there' response.

So because it normally goes unchallenged people may see bad grammar written down and assume it's correct - especially if it sounds impressive like 'myself'

Then there's the rap, gangster style lingo which I suppose infiltrates every day speech. Confused

HoraceCope · 03/02/2019 09:38

I heard Graham Norton misuse Myself on radio 2 yesterday, and thought of this thread! Grin

HoraceCope · 03/02/2019 09:40

but further upthread it is mentioned that Irish use myself more, perhaps that is why?

Gran22 · 03/02/2019 09:54

Starting a sentence with 'myself' just sounds wrong. 'Myself and him' is as bad as 'me and him'. Top of the list of trying to sound like Hyacinth bouquet, above calling a scone a 'scowne' and even more annoying than 'would of'.

Myself and him was eating scownes, we would of had cake but there weren't none. Lovely. Smile