# I have decided today to point out to people to stop saying and writing 'myself' **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 16, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137 "2007-01-16T00:34:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/21 "2007-01-16T08:46:39Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking] I think I will not show people that they are being confusing by writing ‘myself’ and ‘yourself’ in inappropriate places. [/QUOTE] Speaking for myself, I thank you. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/22 "2007-01-16T10:46:11Z")
[QUOTE=kambuckta] You’re waiting on a response towards that little jem from\*\* me \*\*aren’t you **Doggy**? … Suck Tooheys and Die. 😃 [/QUOTE] I know this is friendly rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. But do others realise? This is not the pit, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/23 "2007-01-16T11:17:39Z")
Oh, woe is I! ---
**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/24 "2007-01-16T11:33:40Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking] When they should be saying ‘me’. And I will point out to people they should be saying ‘you’ not ‘yourself’. It may be quixotic, because even newspapers write like that now. [/QUOTE] I support your work. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/25 "2007-01-16T15:23:11Z")
Apparently Melburnians also don’t, I mean do not, believe in common contractions. Instead, their language comes through as stilted and anachronistic. StG ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/26 "2007-01-16T15:45:57Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking] Every time I read someone ending a memo with ‘…any questions please ask myself.’ qualifies. [/QUOTE] I posted about “myself” being overused and misused in another thread (the most overused word thread… duh), but I have to say: you’re going to make yourself unpopular and make life just a tiny less pleasant for people. It’s not worth it. “Any questions please ask myself” has a clear meaning. It’s not the proper use of the word, but meanings change. I can’t think of a way to read that memo except “please ask the person who wrote this memo.” Definitions change. “Myself” bothers me because it’s a little pretentious. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/27 "2007-01-16T15:55:48Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking] I know this is friendly rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. But do others realise? This is not the pit, is it? [/QUOTE] Eh, those two are good mates. Few around here would take what **kambuckta** said to him seriously, **blinkingblinking**. Didn’t know Tooheys was lethal anyway. Except maybe in above medicinal dose concentrations … 😉 Just a question, though: apart from the usage of “myself” being grammatically incorrect, as you’ve pointed out, why would it be confusing in the contexts cited? If someone uses “me” or “myself”, surely they’re still referring to the first person singular? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/28 "2007-01-16T15:58:20Z")
Okay, so, I have no idea what kind of misuse you guys are talking about. Please examples, please? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/29 "2007-01-16T16:17:46Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Okay, so, I have no idea what kind of misuse you guys are talking about. Please examples, please? -FrL- [/QUOTE] The sentence in the Pit thread that had **blinkingblinking** stepping in was “Our lab is very small - just Rob the Aussie, Dr. Boss and myself – and has worked closely with the DH for several years.” [From here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=404191) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/30 "2007-01-16T16:25:43Z")
So, you plan to correct Chaucer: > [@](#): > > c1387-95 CHAUCER Canterbury Tales Prol. 544 Ther was also a reve and a millere..A maunciple, and my self. And, of course, that language illiterarte, William Shakespeare: > [@](#): > > a1616 SHAKESPEARE Ant. & Cl. (1623) II. v. 83 These hands do lacke Nobility, that they strike A meaner then my selfe. Or Samuel Richardson: > [@](#): > > 1748 S. RICHARDSON Clarissa III. xxiii. 136 Enough to make a better man than myself..run into madness. And that hack Thomas Hardy: > [@](#): > > 1894 T. HARDY Life’s Little Ironies 19 If it were only myself I would do it, and gladly Not to mention William Butler Yeats > [@](#): > > 1904 W. B. YEATS Let. 16 Apr. (1994) III. 582 Miss Horniman, the architect & myself were inspecting the theatre. But I guess you know more than they do. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137/31 "2007-01-16T16:32:33Z")
[And this site says:](http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/#34) > [@](#): > > According to The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style, "Myself is best used either reflexively (I have decided to exclude myself from consideration) or intensively (I myself have seen instances of that type). But myself shouldn’t appear as a substitute for I or me. Using it that way is thought somehow to be modest, as if the reference were less direct [emphasis added]. Yet it’s no less direct, and the user may unconsciously cause the reader or listener to assume an intended jocularity, or that the user is somewhat doltish … > > Never use a reflexive pronoun in place of a standard personal pronoun. They are correctly used only in the reflexive or emphatic roles. Possibly what **blinkingblinking** was getting at, but unfortunately in a way that got up folks’ noses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-decided-today-to-point-out-to-people-to-stop-saying-and-writing-myself/388137.md?page=1)