Stop saying 'myself and...'

[Ridiculous24]

I'm sorry, I'm grumpy.
It's everywhere.
The top level at work are now using it. They have English degrees.

@Springsombrero , it probably sounds a bit formal because 'We' is usually sufficient.
If you were telling someone you were nipping down to the chippy you'd probably know them quite well.

If I was talking to a friend or relative, I'd say 'We went...'
If I needed to be specific, I'd say 'Bob and I went...' or 'DC and I went...'

Did you ever watch Hyacinth Bucket in 'Keeping up Appearances'? She sounded posh but definitely wasn't. Anyway, a comment not worth nitpicking about so I'll leave it there.

But it’s not posh. It’s just correct. Why do you think correct English belongs to the rich and posh?
Nothing Hyacinth about it either. She was trying to look posher than she was. Using correct grammar is not posh.

Im a medical secretary and doctors dictate this all the time. They say myself when it should be me. I’m not the best with grammar but it is so annoying. I think ppl think it makes them sound smarter

No, I disagree. I have the type of accent where a glottal stop might be expected, and I don't use it.

I think speech can be split into two parts: your accent, which is basically the shape of your vowels; and what you might call your 'precision' when it comes to glottal stops, dropping h's at the beginning of words and g's at the end etc.

It's perfectly possible to have a Yorkshire or Scouse or Essex accent and still speak formally or even just choose to sound all your letters properly in everyday speech, as I try to.
If anything it's quite insulting and patronising to the working class to suggest we can't possibly speak properly just because of where we're from.

Sorry, but it sounds like you have quite a limited perspective of life in the UK. I’m from a working class background and now almost always in middle class settings - but I would still sound like a total 🛎️ 🔚 if I said “my husband and I” in most verbal social situations that I face. As I said in a previous post, there are obvious solutions though.

Why do people say these things? I’m a teacher and I’ve taught in some pretty deprived places. My dad grew up in a mining village in the 20s and 30s when all their food had to be packed into a metal box at night to keep the cockroaches away. Who do you think taught me the correct grammar? I used to get him to check my degree essays for grammar because his was better than mine, despite him having left school at 14.
This view that working class people have to be ignorant is very classist.

Edit: if your ‘obvious solution’ is for everyone to ignore perfectly simple grammar rules, then no thanks.

Probably the reason 'my husband and I' sounds overly formal is because it's how the late queen would often start speeches and one that people would ham up when impersonating her.

But I don't believe it sounds weird as suggested below. Not sure how else I would start a sentence when talking to people who don't know dh?

The dropping of t is not seen as proper - whereas the dropping of r is. One is considered posh and correct - the other is not. Who made the rules? It wasn’t the working classes, was it?

Yes!!!

Poor letter R. (Pronounced Oar not Arr 😜)

’There is’ with a plural rouses my pedant-ire every time.

It must be nice not to care about such things, or not to notice them.

Nearly every thread had a post with 'myself' instead of 'me'.
It seems to be catching.....

Just listened to Stephen Flynn talking about the speaker treating 'myself and my colleagues with contempt'. It's everywhere!!

Agree with most of this but “Jen went to the shops with Fred and myself” is not grammatically correct. Replace myself with me.

Gives me the rage too OP.
I judge.

It sounds like they are trying to sound mire intelligent but it has the complete opposite effect!

I couldn't agree more. The DC had a primary head teacher who did it.

I had an email stating;
"...please revert to myself with dates you can do".
I thought I'd had a stroke. Then I thought the writer may have had a stroke that made them think they were writing posh and formally, but had no idea

I think they are covering up their ignorance.

It sounds ignorant.

More! (Still need an edit button mumsnet)

Yes, that's true (Londoner here). It is natural to some London accents but not everyone in London. What I object to is people who grew up without using the glottal stop suddenly adopting it. For one thing, it doesn't help people from elsewhere or hard of hearing to understand your speech and it is also unbearably phoney. I first noticed this in the 1980s when a junior doctor where I worked spoke in what would 20 years later become labelled "estuarine accent" (not any genuine London accent). Some of her colleagues later told me that when she was a fellow medical student her natural accent had been home counties RP.

That is bad!

YES!

It doesn't sound more formal it is WRONG.