To hate people using the word 'myself' instead of just 'me'?

[blackrabbitwhiterabbit]

There's just no need. It should be 'my friend and I'...shouldn't it? Not 'myself and my friend.'

First world 🌎 problems, I know. 😂

I'm Irish and I think the Irish use of myself/yourself is more casual and informal than what's being discussed here, which is people using myself or yourself instead of I/me/you in an effort to sound more formal.

@JenniferBarkley , it's probably acceptable as patois. I wouldn't recommend using it in e-mails.

Yeah exactly @PedantScorner , you wouldn't see it used formally. Whereas other elements of English we use like gotten, haitch etc are acceptable formally but regularly criticised on here.

@CharlottenBerg don't know if you were around on Pedants' Corner when it was a nice place to discuss language quirks rather than a nasty, snooty "I've had to come over here to tell you about the poster who has just written..." that it's become, but there's a very interesting thread where people who know an awful lot more about language than me (and the grumpy customers who made Tesco change their NOT wrong sign) about why the less/fewer distinction is much more nuanced than less= uncountable, fewer= countable, which seems to be where the self-styled pedants' knowledge of grammar begins and ends.

It's not just annoying. It's grammatically incorrect, makes no sense and makes the speaker sound a) pretentious and b) stupid.

(My opinion and I'm sticking to it)

I am horrified by the number of well-educated people who have started using it too.

You would be doing him a favour to point out that it's wrong.

No, they're not. They're poor English. And I am originally from East London. It's not compulsory to speak like that

Not to mention 'number' and 'amount'...

'myself, John, Mary, etc or John, Mary and me/I?'

Take everyone else out of the sentence
Would you say 'Me attended the meeting' 'I' or 'Myself' (hint: it's never 'myself'!)

You would say 'I' attended... so then put it back with everyone else, usually at the end.' John, Mary and I...'

Does that make sense?

Another one I hate...

(I clearly need to get out more!)

For me, it is actually an age thing.

I grew up reading beautifully written books from decades earlier (E. Nesbit, LM Montgomery, PL Travers etc) so what I read was correct English. Even Enid Blyton!
Newsreaders and presenters were beautifully spoken. Newspapers were all broadsheets and were rigorously edited (even what are now Red Tops) and whilst things getting slightly less posh was a good thing it's gone far too far in the other direction imo

I tend to find that people who speak English as a 2nd or 3rd language speak it far better than most native speakers because they tend to be grounded in the grammar

You're right.
And when you listen it really is just part of dialect in that case

It's not compulsory to use any accent.

I'm Irish but can pronounce my th's perfectly well (and in truth don't love accents which don't). That doesn't mean that Irish people who pronounce th the way I say t or d are wrong. We just have different accents.

Newsreaders and presenters were beautifully spoken.

Beautifully spoken is subjective. I enjoy hearing a wide range of accents on TV. And think it's far more important that reporting is thoughtful and accurate than in a particular accent.

Two things that grind my wheels are (mainly tabloid) newspapers and e.g. the 'local' newspaper sites run by the Reach Group ('Somewhere Live') using 'mum' and (especially) 'nan' when they mean 'mother' and 'grandmother'. I don;t meen in direct speech. They don't yet have 'sis', 'bro', or 'grampy' yet, but maybe it's only a matter of time.

Everyone used to say I was 'well spoken' as a youngster. Maybe it came from getting a free place at Alleyn's. It used to embarrass me, as if I was perceived to be something I am not, but I've learned to live with it, and it taught me not to judge people by their accents (well, except the characters on Eastenders).

Yes, it’s exactly this in Ireland - a direct translation from Gaeilge.

It's not pompous at all in Ireland, it's just the dialect. In England in my experience it's used by people who don't understand grammar and want to make themselves sound intelligent. Unfortunately it has the opposite effect.

Another thing I hate is people meaning say they only have a small role in a big organisation and saying 'I'm only a [small] cog in a [big] wheel'. A cog is a wheel. You're a small cog in a big machine.

But strictly speaking - or so a quick Google search has suggested - a cog is actually one of the sticking-out teeth on a wheel, which does give meaning to the saying, doesn't it?

Hmmm... I did a quick Google search, and it seems that, depending on the dictionary, a cog can either be a bar or wheel with teeth on the edge, and these engage with other toothed bars or wheels as part of a machine, or also (I didn't know) the teeth themselves. In the second meaning, I'd have thought it would be 'a cog on a wheel', but I admit it's not as clear-cut as I imagined.

You should only use myself when it is something youve done:

I baked the cake myself
I washed myself
I pissed myself laughing.
No other ways! Never as a replacement of me or I!

As for me or I, I was taught a very simple rule - remove the other person!

So is it John and I went to the cinema or John and me went to the cinema?
Imagine John doesnt exist!
So I went to the cinema. And then add John in to the sentence. John and I went to the cinema.

Daisy bought flowers for John and me or for John and I?
No John!
Daisy bought flowers for me! Not for I!
So when I add John in, it becomes Daisy bought flowers for John and me!

So basically, just ignore the other people in the sentence and build it as if it was for you alone, then add them!
And never use myself, unless you are discribing something you have done yourself.

I love oxford commas! They make the sentence more elegant and it usually makes more sense!

I agree. I always use the serial comma unless I am forced to follow a particular style guide that indicates otherwise.

Well, I can't disagree with you there - to me too it would make more sense for the smal cog to be 'on' a big wheel, too, but as there are quite a few possible permutations of cogs/wheels, it really doesnt bother me 😁

Totally unnecessary and meaningless commas annoy me.

I've noticed an increasing number of people putting one between subject and verb.

For example:

They said, they were going out.
My inlaws, call in all the time.
Daisy, bought flowers for John and me.
(I have made those up, but they are typical of the sort of thing I keep seeing)

Why?

I tend to think (while admitting that my own English grammar is not perfect) that commas are rather like apostrophes: if in doubt, leave them out, as too few is generally better than too many.