Using “Me” vs. “Myself”
Excerpt from the book: Smarten the F*ck Up! – © Copyright 2023 Dave Bastien
This is based on a true story that happened over dinner one night. I hope it not only helps to convey the lesson, but provides a good laugh, too!
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(Note: This is an excerpt from the chapter on using “Me” vs. “Myself,” which also contains additional examples on their proper use.)
By far, the most common misuse of me vs. myself is people saying myself when they should be saying me. And here’s the easy part of using me vs. myself: the rule is the same as in the previous chapter!
The rule: Take the other person out of the sentence and say it again.
Example 1 – wrong: “Maggie was very proud of her new implants and sent pictures of them to Jimmy and myself.”
To find the correct word, simply take Jimmy out of the group (even though he’d be disappointed to not get the pics) and re-write the sentence: “Maggie was very proud of her new implants and sent pictures of them to myself.” This obviously doesn’t sound right, so the correct word to use is me, as in “Maggie was very proud of her new implants and sent pictures of them to me.”
Then you can add Jimmy back in and get the correct version of the full sentence, which is:
Example 1 – correct: “Maggie was very proud of her new implants and sent pictures of them to Jimmy and me.” (I still don’t know why she included Jimmy in this, though.)
Here’s a simple rule on when to use myself: If you use the word I at or near the beginning of the sentence, you should typically use myself. Otherwise, use me.
I call it the “I, Myself” rule because that’s the order of the words as they appear in a sentence when myself is used correctly. This is the 99% rule and covers almost all instances of when you’d use the word myself. And it certainly covers enough to make you sound 99% smarter, which, after all, is the goal of this book!
For example, if I’m the one sending the pictures of Maggie’s new implants to myself, then I’d use I at the beginning of the sentence and it would be like this:
“I sent the pictures of Maggie’s new implants to myself.”
And if I also sent them to Jimmy then it would read, “I sent the pictures of Maggie’s new implants to Jimmy and myself.” And he would thank me. After all – as he finally explained to me – he’s the one who recommended the dentist she got them from!
Excerpt from the book: Smarten the F*ck Up!
© Copyright 2021 Dave Bastien
Smarten the F*ck Up! uses plain English and humor to help people fix the common mistakes they’ve been making their entire lives.