Stop putting ‘I’ as the object in a sentence

[ProfessorPeppy]

Everyone does this. Everyone. It’s so simple: if you’re the subject of the sentence, you’re ‘me’.

DH and I bought a chihuahua- correct

DCs and I took chihuahua for a walk - correct

The chihuahua barked at DH and I - WRONG

Please send the chihuahua back to DH and I - WRONG WRONG WRONG!

If in doubt, take out DH to hear how wrong it sounds:

Please send the chihuahua back to I.

The chihuahua barked at I.

Thank you 😥

Don’t forget the aahmonds.

It’s just me, myself and I.

I’ll get my coat 🧥.

Myself inevitably hoist I with your own petard, which is why I am a silent pedant online.

IRL I'm an editor. Online I am barely literate. The joy of not having to go back and correct everything is so liberating.

I thought “the worst” is correct in this context because it’s a superlative? Happy to be corrected.

Myself has thoroughly enjoyed this thread.
I should spend more time here - I'm a pedant, me.

To your last question: no, it's never correct, because you can't do something on behalf of yourself, only someone else.

"The crew and I wish you a safe and pleasant flight" is better and shorter, but English encourages padding on the assumption that longer and more convoluted = more polite and formal.

Yes, "the worst" is correct, but you very often see "worse" written. Sorry - the eye-rolling emoji obviously wasn't clear!

Could you explain when to use 'yourself' and 'myself' please? I know when it looks or sounds wrong, but I don't know why it's wrong

I dated someone who would say things like, "I did it on my behalf" which used to irritate me intensely.

Also, why do cabin crew add "do" to everything as if they're being weirdly contradictory? "We do wish you a very pleasant flight" and "We do have a range of sandwiches".

Er, ok. No-one said you didn't!

They are either reflexive or used for emphasis/contradiction:

I wash myself.
I wanted to treat myself so I bought myself a present.
No, he didn't do it - I did it myself.

Here’s[ ] something for you, OP.
With a “ we don’t got much” thrown in for good luck!

Send a message to the BBC.

Prince Harry said to the camera, ".... Meghan and myself had a son this morning.....

I know it isn't the same type of mistake. It is, however equally common, and equally grating.

Regarding French - funnily enough, my secondary school French teacher did sometimes mention that he found it rather difficult to teach us the nuances of French grammar because we didn't know the English versions off by heart. He blamed our English teachers, and I was inclined to agree with him on that one.

Regarding French - funnily enough, my secondary school French teacher did sometimes mention that he found it rather difficult to teach us the nuances of French grammar because we didn't know the English versions off by heart. He blamed our English teachers, and I was inclined to agree with him on that one.

Yep. For us languages teachers it's the bane of our lives. It's been a bit better since they started doing more grammar in primary schools because of the SPaG SATS test though (although everyone hates it and thinks it's pointless ). At least kids now arrive in secondary school knowing what a noun, verb, adjective and adverb are.

My English is shite but this annoys me too 😭😭😭

I also find the incorrect use of 'myself' really jarring.

I think what pedants don't understand is that a lot of people completely missed out on learning the basic rules of English. I just about know what adjectives, verbs and nouns are but don't understand the language used to explain how English works.

I'm intelligent enough in other areas but my basic SPAG is not great.

I get a pissed off when posters say that people with poor literacy are thick. It's simply not true.

My friend is a lexicographer and tells me to chill out about it. He says language is always changing and there’s no such thing as ‘correct usage’.

I agree but also you wouldn't bang a wrong note into a piece of music.

People get so snippy and defensi.ve about it but language is a beautiful thing with nuances and the details make a difference to understanding, which is important.

Part of my degree was "English in Context" and I love that I learnt that "English is forever changing" because it makes me feel better when I choose the "wrong" word! Friends, family and acquaintances seem to find joy when I use less when it "should" be fewer and vice versa. It really doesn't matter!
Even so I, mentally, cringe (I wouldn't dream of correcting anyone) when anyone, I'm listening to, says "I" when it should be "me" and vice versa. 🤣🤣

In fairness, he's usually too busy informing some marginally older lady cooking the food she grew up eating and has fed a hundred generations before she came to the UK as a teenager that her food isn't authentic and would be far better if she would cook it how he has decided is 'real' (and repeatedly correcting her pronunciation of said food/ingredients in the process) to worry about not sounding like a total knob.

The one that enrages me is 'myself'

'Dave and myself are going to the pub' nooooo

While it's true that language evolves, and English is particularly good at adopting words from other languages and coming up with new ones, there are some changes which aren't good. Some changes make the language less clear, more ambiguous and therefore less suited to its purpose of communication (eg 'literal' now also being used for hyperbolical figuratives), or useful distinctions may be lost (eg 'disinterested' being used to mean 'uninterested').

Despite doing a degree in English with a stong element of close textual analysis, I didn't really learn any grammar until I did a TEFL certificate several years later.

I was fine with French grammar because my mother was a fierce old-school languages teacher and secretly taught me grammar at home, but German also defeated me because I was taught for 4 years by a hippy who thought it was cruel to trammel children's learning with grammar. Knowing that there were 16 words for "the" but not knowing which one to use when was intensely frustrating.

The little grammar I learned was from my German teacher. We all looked utterly confused when she started talking about accusative cases. It wasn't fashionable to teach grammar in comprehensive schools in those days.

I was taught for 4 years by a hippy who thought it was cruel to trammel children's learning with grammar. Knowing that there were 16 words for "the" but not knowing which one to use when was intensely frustrating.

I've always found it very strange that people think it's fine to learn/teach formulae, equations, scientific terminology etc, but somehow teaching grammar and grammatical terminology is regarded as useless, esoteric or a cruel form of punishment. When you're expecting kids to write correctly and articulately in their own language, it's pretty useful to have the vocabulary and knowledge to talk about what is incorrect and why.

Some changes make the language less clear, more ambiguous and therefore less suited to its purpose of communication (eg 'literal' now also being used for hyperbolical figuratives), or useful distinctions may be lost (eg 'disinterested' being used to mean 'uninterested').

A lot of people seem to think that 'reticent' means the same as 'reluctant'.