# Is the use of "myself" ever grammatically correct?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-use-of-myself-ever-grammatically-correct/527085>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 31, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-use-of-myself-ever-grammatically-correct/527085 "2010-01-31T03:53:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![sich\_hinaufwinden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@sich\_hinaufwinden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sich_hinaufwinden)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-use-of-myself-ever-grammatically-correct/527085/21 "2010-02-01T20:01:10Z")

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Excellent thread - give yourselfs a round of applause. 🙂

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**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-use-of-myself-ever-grammatically-correct/527085/22 "2010-02-01T20:40:54Z")

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> [@sich\_hinaufwinden](#):
>
> Excellent thread - give yourselfs a round of applause. 🙂

I like my applause with a little bit of sugar and a little bit of cinnamon. Oh, and you have to use the right appls or the ause just won’t taste right.

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**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-use-of-myself-ever-grammatically-correct/527085/23 "2010-02-01T20:58:07Z")

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> [@sich\_hinaufwinden](#):
>
> Excellent thread - give yourselfs a round of applause. 🙂

Nitpick: the plural form is “yourselves” (and “ourselves” and “themselves”).

Why it’s possessive case sometimes (myself, thyself, ourselves and yourselves), and objective case sometimes (himself, themself\* and themselves), I don’t know. But with “herself” and “itself”, it could be either case.

- “Themself” is for when you are using singular “they”, e.g., “Each student should solve the problem by themself.” But that’s a whole 'nother debate 😃

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**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-use-of-myself-ever-grammatically-correct/527085/24 "2010-02-01T23:04:32Z")

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> [@boozilu](#):
>
> So they use “I” and “myself” when “me” is the proper word to use (which makes my ears bleed too).

This phenomenon is known as [hypercorrection](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercorrection). You see it with who/whom, too.

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