Me, Myself and I

[niadainud]

For the love of Lindley Murray, please can people stop using "myself" and "I" when they actually mean "me"?

"Myself and DP..." is never correct (at least I can't think of an example when it would be correct to begin a sentence in this way) and just sounds pretentious. "Myself" is a reflexive pronoun, or used for emphasis: "I hurt myself" or "I wouldn't do it like that myself".

"I" is for when you are the subject of the sentence (i.e. you are the one doing it): for example, "DP and I like to go dogging at the weekend."

"He came dogging with my DP and I" is wrong as "I" is being erroneously used as an object pronoun in that example.

In short, "me" is not a dirty word, even if "dogging" is.

Sorry, I know some people hate grammar threads that stray outside Pedants' Corner and I fully expect to be jumped on for any minor solecism I may have inadvertently committed, but I'm running out of patience with this one.

Oh, and while I'm at it, you're most probably "lying", not "laying", unless you are some sort of bird.

Of course it's to do with gas lamps. That's where the expression comes from (the film "Gaslight" with Ingrid Bergman).

That's combining various things, I think: dialect, reflexive and imperative. I don't have a problem with any of those myself. 😉

I agree with this. I have a friend who I have known for 60 years (since the beginning of primary school). She used to be a teacher.

A few years ago she said something like “He gave it to David and I”. I jokingly corrected her and she very earnestly assured me that I was wrong and asked didn’t I remember Miss X, our headmistress, always correcting “David and me” to “David and I”?

I explained the difference but I’m not sure she was convinced as she still gets it wrong!

Oh God, I hate the laying/lying thing - 'I was just laying on the bed...' Yuk. Everyone seems to misuse it these days. I keep being told that it's because I'm Scottish but it really isn't. It's because I'm right.

Well that's fine, but a lot of people obviously do care, otherwise they wouldn't be using "myself" (incorrectly) in the first place in an effort to sound more posh/formal/"correct".

So statistically there must be some people out there who care how they come across but who don't realise they're doing the exact opposite of what they intend.

Jeez.

She was talking about people who know how to use it correctly. I said the rest of us (who don't know how to use it correctly) couldn't care less. I never said the majority.

I know that's being pedantic pointing that out so now I'm REALLY torn. 🤣

But presumably you were implying that people are sad if they care about this kind of thing? It came across that way to me, anyway.

Not sad for caring. But unreasonable and irritating for foisting pedantic views on those of us who don't care. We're happy not knowing. Leave us be.

No one forced you to read the thread. People can post about things they find irritating 🙄

Exactly. I'm free to whinge and post how irritating I find pedants when they wander out of their corner. 😁

🤣

Hardly ‘foisting’. No one’s tying you up and holding you captive on the thread, are they? And I’m not aware of any MN rules that restrict discourse to topics of universal interest (thank goodness!). You’re free to click away at any time. 🙂

I think you're definitely showing signs of pedantic behaviour. You're not letting a small point go and, despite what you say, you do care.
Welcome!

Your posts are suspiciously well written for someone who professes not to care about grammatical accuracy.

Also I think people do care, hence the hypercorrection that happens. People who say, "Myself and my DP..." or who "correct" other people by telling them, "No, it should be 'He invited DP and I to go dogging'" are arguably being equally pedantic, they're just also getting it wrong!

Just because I'm not anal about grammar doesn't mean I'm bad at it. I can't see I've even notice someone using myself or me or I incorrectly.

I would not recommend going dogging, surely unsavoury people get attracted to it. Leave well alone .

This feels like you’re an Alexa listening in on our conversation last night! It’s everywhere just lately on reality tv and games shows etc.

‘Foisting!’ This is precisely Ricky Gervais’ point about the guitar lessons ad, pmsl.

Posting on an anonymous forum about something that irritates you is hardly being "anal" about it. It obviously doesn't bother you - that's no big deal. Other people post about things that they think are important that I couldn't give a fig about - also fine.

I post about major minor annoyances like this on MN precisely to avoid being anal about it irl! 😂

I can't express how much I love that you've referenced Lindley Murray.

I walk past his old house nearly every day, and I live on one of two streets named after him.

This has genuinely made my day. I've never seen reference to Lindley Murray out in the wild. I love this.

Thank you OP. I am with you (yourself 🙄) all the way.

Yes, but my point was about the past tense of the term in its modern incarnation: it's 'I was gaslighted', not 'I was gaslit'.

An acquaintance started using ‘yourself’ inappropriately about 12 years ago, that quickly morphed into ‘your good self’, then he started saying ‘myself’ and I could just about cope with these, with internal wincing, but when he started saying ‘my good self’ I almost laughed out loud.

I don't think caring about precision and clarity of language and communication necessarily makes one "anal". No-one would say that about maths.