To want to scream at the misuse of reflexives?

[Whatisthisfuckery]

ARGH!

Where did it come from? Why do people do it? I’m pretty sure it’s a recent thing where people are writing such abominations as ‘please contact myself on...’ or ‘I’d just like to invite x and yourself to...’ No, if you call me ‘yourself’ I’m not coming.

Do people think it makes them’ sound formal or something?

My DS’s form tutor has done it every time she’s emailed me, then today on a video catch up she did it in speech. I’m not sure my face didn’t give me away. I’m sure I visibly cringed, I might have even put my head in my hands. There is no polite or acceptable way to tell your child’s teacher that her incorrect use of language makes you want to repeatedly bang your head against the wall in frustration.

It’s entirely ridiculous and irrational, but AIBU to want to curl up in a ball on the ground and rock backwards and forwards when somebody uses a reflexive where they shouldn’t?

Thanks earlier posters, I can see what's wrong, I don't think I'm guilty of that.

Does the Plain English Campaign still exist?

I'd like to see a lot more plain English, starting in education.

Our accountant does it.

I could murder him.

@okstretch

Does the Plain English Campaign still exist?

I'd like to see a lot more plain English, starting in education.

Yes it does.

@okstretch

Does the Plain English Campaign still exist?

I'd like to see a lot more plain English, starting in education.

I had a job a fair while ago where we had to apply this, it was a really good way to cut the unnecessary

Couldn't agree more with @MasterBeth. It may annoy you @Whatisthisfuckery, but some people aren't fortunate to be educated in grammar.

I find it more of a character flaw to judge people based on their grasp of the written word.

Irritates the living fuck out of me.

@Whatisthisfuckery
You need to listen to the radio 4 comedy 'cabin pressure'
Pay particular attention to Arthur

@Glitterblue ...are you NE Scotland by any chance?? Or is the jamp spreading?

and never mind just jamp, my eldest INSISTED it was jamped I could not bear to ask if that was just past tense or maybe plural
I jamp, they jamped. :o

YANBU, especially in a school context.

I used to work in a call centre and it was used a lot, mainly by blokes who weren't very bright and were trying to make themselves sound important.

but some people aren't fortunate to be educated in grammar

After 12 years of compulsory education, and now 14 years, that's either a poor excuse or an indictment on our education system.

In French they have a 'vous' and a :tu' for formal and informal.. Perhaps it's a shame we can't have that

It is categorically not a shame that we don't have that. Ditto du and Sie in German. They have done away with the distinction in Finnish, I believe. We definitely don't need it to come back in English.

And I will be a lot more annoyed about a letter littered with "yourself"s than I will be about an apparently accusatory letter that uses the perfectly good word "you" several times.

Another thing I don't like is the use of "kindly" which doesn't actually sound very kind at all. For example, the school newsletter which says "kindly read and return this slip". What's wrong with please?

@campion

but some people aren't fortunate to be educated in grammar

After 12 years of compulsory education, and now 14 years, that's either a poor excuse or an indictment on our education system.

Well anyone under the age of about 25, give or take a year or two, has had to do the SPAG test when they left primary school. So presumably they are taught something for the test!

I bloody hate it. I think people use it as they think it makes them sound clever.
1/10, would not recommend!

It sounds a bit thick. Rather like using was instead of were ie was you doing xyz.

I used to hear junior colleagues committing these speech crimes regularly. It's one of the great things about WFH, that I'm not constantly wincing at the misuse of yourself in conversations when you would be perfectly correct.

Also to counter a point raised above about non English speakers finding you too informal, this is always by people born and bred in the UK; I generally find that colleagues for whom English is a second or even third language have impeccable SPAG!

I have never seen this before 😳

YANBU x1000000 !

[quote katy1213]@Lanique I've always called it Call Centre Speak[/quote]
100%. I first heard it in exactly this location

[quote Glitterblue]@VettiyaIruken these all irritate myself too! (Sorry, couldn't resist 😉)

I always feel as if people will think I'm wrong when I say things about "x and me" instead of "x and I" - but as you say, it's not always correct to use "I".

We got DD a t-shirt that says "I'm silently correcting your grammar" - the only problem is, she's not always silent about it and has been known to correct her friends for using "I seen/I done" and "jamp" instead of jumped! She does it really politely though and they never even seem to mind - apart from the one who says jamp - she doesn't believe that it's not jamp, and argues every time 😂😂[/quote]

Jamp?!?!

What the hell?

@ginnybag

I don't get the I/me confusion.

Just take the other person out of the sentence and say it out loud and see if it sounds right.

That said, I blew both my DH's and my DD's minds when I explained it like that, so I suspect it isn't taught that way much.

It's the same as the 'there's'

There (or Where) for a place has 'here' in it. 'Here is a place'
Their for people has an I - 'because I am a person.'
They're - two words because two (or more) people joined together.

I found this picture useful when explaining in class.

@ifitpleasesandsparkles jamp...afaik myself it's a Scottish thing, reasonably specific to NE/Doric/Angus but I am wondering where Glitterblue is

It horrifies and amuses me!

[quote LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow]@ifitpleasesandsparkles jamp...afaik myself it's a Scottish thing, reasonably specific to NE/Doric/Angus but I am wondering where Glitterblue is

It horrifies and amuses me![/quote]

Wow. I'm Scottish. I've never heard of jamp. As in "the boy jamp over the puddle"?

Although I did always feel like "snowed" should be "snew". As in "it snew last night."

You sound like you could do with a good shag.

Argh! Yes, YANBU. It grates on my nerves.
The teachers at the school I worked in used to do it all the time!

I may have audibly winced a couple of times during the staff meetings!