About the use of “myself”

[crispysausagerolls]

Yes it’s petty, yes it’s stupid, yes there have been multiple threads on it but ffs i have just opened 3 threads in a row where people say “myself and DH” or “DS and myself”!

STOP ITTTTTT!!!!!!! 😬😬😬😭😭😭🙈🙈🙈

It’s almost as annoying as the use of caps lock and emojis 😄

There’s a song that I love called A Drop In The Ocean by Ron Pope. But I also hate it, because the line “I was praying that you and me might end up together” ruins an otherwise beautiful song for me.

@Legoandloldolls, misusing "myself" has nothing to do with spelling.

I haven't seen "use to" used in place of "used to," but it does seem even publishers' proofreaders let "I didn't used to" through the net. That irritates me, because it's published writing which has presumably, and hopefully been checked.

This is a mammy forum.

I do wish people were as concerned about punctuation as they are about spelling and (perceived) grammar mistakes.

But I can see that the OP, among others, isn't.

The Labour Party mail is clearly 'and I (are to) talk about" with the part in brackets elided so the "I" is correct.

Ah, sorry, no it's not. I haven't got my glasses on and read "join" as "John".

Just saw this in a Which? guide to avoiding scammers. If you can’t recognise a grammatical error then you are at risk!

Though I think that Which? are being a bit naive when they say that “legitimate organisations will rarely, if ever, make obvious mistakes”.

Very naive! I've recently spotted an advert from a well known caravan company selling '8 birth caravans'. Bloody ridiculous!

@TheCanterburyWhales

Punctuation doesn’t bother me on MN because I see posting as texting. Much less need to use punctuation - and I’m guilty of using emojis as full stops 😁 but in RL I care very much about it.

HOWEVER, you are very welcome to start your own thread about people who don’t use punctuation online being idiots 😃

@TheCanterburyWhales

The Labour Party mail is clearly 'and I (are to) talk about" with the part in brackets elided so the "I" is correct.

eh? Join I am to talk about? That makes no sense.

Join Keir and me... because if you take out the "Keir and" it's "join me to talk about"

oh sorry I should have read your follow up post my bad 😳

@CareBear50

"chest of draws"

Drives me totally up the wall!!

It's a flaming chest of DRAWERS

Yes! 🙈

How long is the que?

Its queue!

Errr, the cue I think you'll find.

No, they've got over asking about the cue to Sainsbury. Its now the que on my local facebook page. But weirdly, it's the cue was massive, que me going mental!

Loving this thread! I get called a bitch irl when I notice. We was..... no, you WERE,
yous IS NOT A WORD- the plural of you is you and as for myself/yourself I agree with above and always think “you knob” when I see it! And breathe....

Honestly I struggle a lot with pronouns/grammar. I never know if I’ve used words correctly and will often go as far to simplify/rephrase sentences that naturally occur in my head

English isn’t my first language but I still did go to school in the UK.
The ridiculous thing is that I got a grade A in both my English Language and Literature gcse. In my defence, I don’t think the quality of education from average state schools in undesirable areas is very good.

@Ohtherewearethen

The ones that drive me mad are the use of 'less' when it should be 'fewer' and when people say, "I/she was sat..." Another one, which I think is more of a spoken thing, is the constant use of, "...she turned round and said...so I turned round and said..." Also the use of apostrophes for plurals. You see it more when a word ends in a vowel, for example, menu's. Shudder.

I lived in Amsterdam a couple of years ago and shuddered at how many plurals that ended in a vowel had apostrophes.

However I've been learning Dutch during furlough and it turns out this is absolutely grammatically correct in Dutch! Still totally wrong in English but there are lots of similarities between the two so perhaps at some point there was cross over.

Some of you are coming across like sanctimonious snobs

The first time I noticed the myself thing was about 20 years ago when I was reading call centre scripts and letters for a large company to make sure they were legally compliant. I had to rewrite so many of them to remove the "myself" - or sentences like "we are writing to yourself about your bill".

So I'm not being sanctimonious, it is a call centre thing. But then the question arises why their legal and PR teams aren't rewriting their scripts too?

But then the question arises why their legal and PR teams aren't rewriting their scripts too?

On the legal side (I have done this job for customer service in a specific industry), the use of “myself/yourself” would not, as a rule, affect the compliance of the script with the law, grating as it may sound. Some lawyers would leave it to avoid offending the client- who might also decide you are a “sanctimonious snob” and decide to use a different one in future.

That’s one reason. Another reason is that some lawyers are also terrible “myselfers”!

Yesssss to ‘going forward’!

I’ll tell you what gets on my wick: ‘in and of itself’. I don’t know whether it’s grammatically incorrect as such, but when is it ever necessary?! It’s definitely used by people trying to sound clever or posh.

I've got a neighbour who writes letters like this. Its totally hilarious. Forthwith, we will assume responsibility for the fence. Notwithstanding the cost, we will blah blah.

I think they genuinely think it turns their mangled letters into legally binding documents

@cologne4711 - like you I cant stand using gift as a verb and then I read Jane Eyre, published 1847 (I think). I was very cross.

"And if God had gifted me some beauty"

"I tell you I must go!" I retorted, roused to something like passion. "Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you, — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; — it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal, — as we are!" Jane Eyre, Ch 23.

I’ll tell you what gets on my wick: ‘in and of itself’. I don’t know whether it’s grammatically incorrect as such, but when is it ever necessary?! It’s definitely used by people trying to sound clever or posh.

I'm trying to think of a sentence, but I do think that one has its place.

@NewNewt

I've got a neighbour who writes letters like this. Its totally hilarious. Forthwith, we will assume responsibility for the fence. Notwithstanding the cost, we will blah blah.

I think they genuinely think it turns their mangled letters into legally binding documents

The difference there, @NewNewt, is that the language may sound pompous but it is grammatically correct. Not the same sin as misuse of the reflexive pronoun.

'As of' when people mean either 'from' or 'at'.

As of Monday face masks will be required - from Monday sounds better to me. As of is harsh and ugly.