Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. How to use it, and how not to use it. AC grammar This one is awesome. I just used the word "myself" a few hours ago and thought it was used incorrectly. So I thought I better check your podcast. I'm learning so much from you. Thanks!! http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=21249#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=21249#Comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:44:20 GMT km9000 grammar People in mass media are only contributing to the overuse of this butchering of "myself"... athletes, coaches, politicians, pundits, entertainers, etc etc... The most common usage seems to be in the "Tom, Dick, and myself" department. Unfortunately, I think it does tend to make them sound more intelligent to those who aren't aware of the rule. And there seems to be no end in sight. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=20652#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=20652#Comments Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:25:43 GMT song4mozart grammar Eek! I saw an error in my comment. *shudders* I was revising "..but it's doing just the opposite" to "but it does just the opposite." and I forgot to edit the it's. I just wanted you to know I did catch that, but a little too late. :P http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18926#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18926#Comments Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:34:56 GMT song4mozart grammar I hear the misuse of "myself" ALL the time. I'm an English teacher, and that (along with many other grammatical errors) drives me batty! I think people try to sound "smart" by using "myself", but it's does just the opposite. On another note, have you noticed adverbs are rarely if ever used anymore? It's awful! Even our so-called educated people are eliminating them. Why is this so, and what can we do about it? I don't want the adverb to be obliterated from the English language. I know I sound a little overly-dramatic, but seriously, this is a prime example of how slang replaces the proper use of the English language! http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18924#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18924#Comments Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:29:30 GMT Cindy grammar I'm new here, so I'm reading some past things. I think that Rob is quite correct when he says that people are using the wrong words when they are trying to sound smarter. People think that "I" & "myself" sound so much better than "me" that they are using them in so many wrong places! I have actually heard people say that the rule is the exact opposite of using what you would use if it were just the one person - saying that if "me is correct when it's just one, that "I" shuld be used when it's more than one. They just won't believe me when I tell them that they are wrong. If I could remember the grammatical rules, that would certainly help. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18388#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18388#Comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:52:09 GMT Rob grammar Hey Alexander, Thanks for your response. Of course English is Germanic in origin, but I'm not really sure how that bears on the point at hand. We're talking about over a thousand years since English started evolving independently, so the Modern German reflexivity of the word concentrate has no effect whatsoever on its usage in Modern English. In fact, as far as I can find, the word in question comes to English via French less than 300 years ago. This idea of a zero reflexive pronoun is an interesting one, but I think you'd need a different example to make your point. In that usage of the word, concentrate is an intransitive verb; no one would say "concentrate myself," (at least not in American English) so it would be odd to label the lack of reflexive as a "zero reflexive." I've tried to think of an example where a reflexive is required but sometimes is left out, but I've come up with nothing. Do you have any other examples? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18318#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18318#Comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:42:53 GMT alexander grammar @Rob: remember English is a Germanic-based language. Have you ever thought that there could (linguistically speaking) be a ZERO reflexive pronoun at hand. eg. "I concentrate (myself) on the topic at hand." just as there exist ZERO articles? would love to hear from anyone on this point... http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18232#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=18232#Comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:49:53 GMT Rob grammar @alexander Sorry, but I have to completely disagree that this is an ESL mistake. This is an error I find all the time in professional environments. It's almost like one of those "hypercorrection" situations, where people use what they think is the "smarter" way of saying something, but make themselves look foolish instead (e.g. "I feel badly"). In fact, my mom, a lifelong secretary, uses this all the time. I've given up on trying to correct her; in her work environment, this probably makes her look more formal, given that the misuse is so widespread. Oddly enough, I even found this same error in an otherwise well-written New York Times article today ("Watching Whales Watching Us"). As for ESL students, I hear the opposite problem quite often: many of my lower-level students fail to use the reflexive when it is needed. I've seldom if ever heard a student overuse the reflexive in this manner (though I have very few German students). Italian students often say "I forget myself," mistakenly applying the Italian grammar in English. This seems to be the type of error you're talking about, but this is an entirely different category of error than Grammar Girl is dealing with. In "I concentrate myself," a reflexive is being introduced when no pronoun is needed whatsoever. The mistake being discussed is the substitution of a reflexive where either an object or subject pronoun is required. This may seem like a superficial difference, but the basis for the two errors is entirely different. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=17798#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=17798#Comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:13:10 GMT Wilson grammar 'The quick and dirty tip is to think about how you would write the sentence if you were the only one in it, and then use that pronoun. For example, "Please contact me." ' Sadly, I actually have heard people say, "Please contact myself." Argh. My question is this: is it INcorrect to use 'me' where 'myself' is correct? As in "I bought me a hamburger." I dislike the misuse of reflexive pronouns so much that I prefer to use non-reflexive ones 'incorrectly' in protest. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=17588#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=17588#Comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:14:30 GMT kate grammar Nice introduction! Being a freshman in blogging, I read lots of literature as far as what and how to write. http://www.ebook-search-queen.com/ helps me with the books, and your post with inspiration! Thanks! http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=17579#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx?commentid=17579#Comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:19:35 GMT Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:44:20 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us