‘Thank you for contacting myself’

[RHTawneyonabus]

Someone who drafts letters for me to sign is always using ‘myself’ or ‘yourself’ when I would use ‘me’ or ‘you’ I really hate it but despite some gentle prompting they keep doing it. Could anyone who is better at grammar than me explain why I hate this so much, or is it just a personal preference thing? Thanks!

You hate it because it is WRONG! So do i

Yes, you hate it because it's wrong and people who do it trying to sound intelligent or whatever it is reveal exactly the opposite about themselves.

Yes, it's wrong.

For whatever reason,many people have grown up thinking that 'me/ you' isn't 'polite' This is, presumably, because they've never been taught when to correctly use each. So 'myself/yourself' crept in and has become commonplace. The same people probably say/write 'speak to Mr Blank or I...' although they'll more likely insert 'myself' these days.

Don't be gentle, OP.

Myself is a reflexive pronoun. It can never be used unless the sentence already contains I or me, I.e. "I could do that myself".

"Thank you for contacting myself" actually means "Thank you to me for contacting myself", which makes no sense whatsoever.

This is a good explanation:

www.grammarly.com/blog/reflexive-pronouns/

I doubt that it will do much good: reflexive pronoun misuse has become so widespread that the words "you" and "me" just sound wrong to many people.

Sadly ive heard both prince william and harry use yourself/myself so i dont think we stand a chance any more!

I wouldn’t be signing any letters with myself used like that!

Who is writing it? Tell them it’s wrong-problem solved.

Thank you all! It’s very useful to have this information. I can now refuse to sign it on the basis that it is wrong rather than me having an unreasonable preference (which is what has been suggested).

Arthur in "Cabin Pressure" at least is funny with it, though unddoubtedly wrong!