Yourself/myself instead of you/me

[shineypenny]

These are used increasingly in emails and now even conversation (cringe):

'I spoke to yourself on the telephone yesterday...'
'It was done by my colleague and myself' or, even worse, 'It was done by myself'

What's wrong with
'I spoke to you on the telephone yesterday'
'It was done by my colleague and me' and 'I completed it'

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but this is really grating at me at the moment.

smellofsick, I love semi-colons! It's one of the things which would out me if I tried to troll (assuming there were pedants on the case, rather than punctuation blind people from outside this sacred corner of MN!)

nickelbabe, you don't sound either "stupidly posh" (I think of dumb Sloanes with that sort of description) or "really, really common" - probably because I have only "heard" you write, and you always sound happily literate to me! You own a bookshop, don't you?

i like happily literate! I do own a bookshop, yes. I think I've just always been a stickler for correct English, and pronunciation. Of course, down here, I sound like a brash Northerner anyway - even though I can speak better than those down here, they seem to think we're all common and, I dunno, outside toilets, maybe?

I love this thread. I have caught DP occasionally smirking at my correct use of grammar and raising eyebrows when I use words such as fortuitous. He said, "do you mean lucky? Cos this is me and I don't know big words like you do"

I love this thread too. My ILs have a massive 'myself' habit, and it completely comes from being unsure of themselves and overcompensating for it in the direction of 'poshness'.

DH does it too because it's how he was brought up, but he embraces my annoying corrections. He'll come home from work and say 'myself and Dan are going on a course', and I'll interrupt him with 'Dan and I' then wonder how irritating that is. But because I've explained it to him (erm, once or twice) he is actually glad to be corrected because he does it without thinking.

I will win this battle, dammit, I will. DH and 'myself' have been together 12 years though, and I'm not there yet.

Keep going, MissClavel! I've trained my DH (he of the willages and viggling) out of his "V/W" habits, and am getting somewhere with his tendency to use present perfect when simple past would be better ("I have done it yesterday" - argh), so it can be done! He's even losing his accent a bit, and isn't even a linguist by nature and training (he studied maths and IT). Mind you, perhaps he's just wery clewer.

Oh I hate this - I think the thick as pigshit speaker thinks they are being refained.

In fact they sound like morons. This kind of speech is especially popular with recruitment consultants and estate agents.

I have to correct DH with his "we was" "you was" and "fink, free, etc"
(although the latter he is better one, but he just can't understand the Was/were thing)

on

plupervert. I think your DH's viggling willages is endearing.

Other than my use of long words, DP and I speak similarly except I am posher. He disapproves of 'fink/ fick/ free' as much as I do and grumbles about dropped Hs (he from 'ampshire)

Grockle, re: the dropped "H": Has your DP ever heard French people adding the letter H to words which don't have them? "Heggs", for hexample? That's actually quite sweet! (Of course, French has a lot of reflexives, so they wouldn't make the mistake which originally prompted this thread.)

It's not just French people - it's the same English people that say "myself".
they put Hs on because they're overcompensating.

plupervert - I also think the willages and viggling are hugely endearing. And your DH does sound wery clewer indeed. To myself, at least.