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Me, Myself and I
31 March 2009
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When I first got elected and was handed a motion to move, then had to make the announcement at the table, I wondered, is it moved by me or by myself?
Well, as any maven of English can tell you, it's ME.*
When you talk about yourself as the subject of a sentence, you use the nominative or subjective pronoun "I" as in I am going, I am moving, I am reading and so on. Me is the objective form of that pronoun. As in, "That belongs to me," or "She was coming to see me," or "This motion is moved by me."
But many people mistakenly think of "me" as lowly or coarse, and substitute I where it is inappropriate. They say, 'The resolution was approved by both the mayor and I,' when the correct pronoun is me: 'The resolution was approved by both the mayor and me.'
It's like the word between: it takes the objective form of the pronoun. Nothing can get between you and I, but it can be found between you and me. Nothing lowly or coarse there.**
Some people incorrectly substitute the reflexive pronoun 'myself' for me or even I: ''The resolution was approved by both the mayor and myself,' and "This motion is moved by myself and Councillor Chadwick." Both, of course, are incorrect.
The rule for using the reflexive form is simple: "Use myself only when you have used I earlier in the same sentence, as in: 'I am not a particularly skilled ukulele player, myself'."
Myself should never be used as a substitute for me or I in a sentence in which it is the only personal pronoun. So "I sent it to myself" is fine, but not "please send it to myself" because in the latter there is no other pronoun to balance 'myself'. It's reflexive: it needs to refer back to something (I or me). You wouldn't say "Myself moved this motion..."
The pronoun "me" should also be used when someone else will perform the action to, or for, you. So you don't say, "If you have questions, please call Chadwick or myself," and never "If you have questions, please call Chadwick or I." No, you should say, "If you have questions, please call Chadwick or me." If you take Chadwick out of the equation, then it's clear: "If you have questions, please call me." You wouldn't say "please call I" or "please call myself."
Here are some examples of using 'myself' properly. In every case myself refers back to another pronoun (I):
So: a motion can be moved by ME, bu NOT moved by myself. You CAN say "I moved it myself," although it sounds stuffy and contrived. You can also say, "I moved and Councillor So-and-so seconded," which puts it in the active voice, rather than the passive. But you should never, ever say "moved by myself."
In case you missed it, March 4 was National Grammar Day.
~~~~~
* Yes: 'it's' is correct here because that is a contraction of it is. The possessive version is without the apostrophe: 'its'. As it "its size is too small' or 'its height is too low.' I get irate seeing "it's" used as a possessive in Powerpoint slides. Or those unnecessary apostrophes in dates - 1960's and 1980's - that makes it possessive, not plural! Write 1960s and 1980s, no apostrophe.
** The plural of me is us and the plural of myself is ourselves. 'It was approved by us,' is correct (objective form, plural). So is 'We approved it' (subjective form, plural). But 'It was approved by ourselves' is incorrect. You could say, "We approved it ourselves' because the reflexive 'ourselves' now has an anchoring subjective pronoun to refer back to. 'It was approved by we three' is incorrect because the verb requires the objective pronoun here. The proper form is 'It was approved by us three.' Drop the 'three' and see how it reads.
You can say "This was a motion that we councillors approved Monday with great delight," because 'we councillors' is the subject of the sentence. To use 'us' you need to turn the sentence around and put the pronoun in the proper, objective place: "It was a motion that was delightfully moved by us councillors." In the former, however, you could easily be referring to just some of council or all depending on the situation, but in the latter it is unclear if the us refers to all or a portion of council and to my mind suggests all.
How about this one? "I believe that, for the most part, us small urban communities are the backbone of the province." Or do you prefer, "I believe that, for the most part, we small urban communities are the backbone of the province." Yes - we, because it's part of the subject (remove 'small urban communities' and see how it reads).[/indent]
Well, as any maven of English can tell you, it's ME.*
When you talk about yourself as the subject of a sentence, you use the nominative or subjective pronoun "I" as in I am going, I am moving, I am reading and so on. Me is the objective form of that pronoun. As in, "That belongs to me," or "She was coming to see me," or "This motion is moved by me."
But many people mistakenly think of "me" as lowly or coarse, and substitute I where it is inappropriate. They say, 'The resolution was approved by both the mayor and I,' when the correct pronoun is me: 'The resolution was approved by both the mayor and me.'
It's like the word between: it takes the objective form of the pronoun. Nothing can get between you and I, but it can be found between you and me. Nothing lowly or coarse there.**
Some people incorrectly substitute the reflexive pronoun 'myself' for me or even I: ''The resolution was approved by both the mayor and myself,' and "This motion is moved by myself and Councillor Chadwick." Both, of course, are incorrect.
The rule for using the reflexive form is simple: "Use myself only when you have used I earlier in the same sentence, as in: 'I am not a particularly skilled ukulele player, myself'."
Myself should never be used as a substitute for me or I in a sentence in which it is the only personal pronoun. So "I sent it to myself" is fine, but not "please send it to myself" because in the latter there is no other pronoun to balance 'myself'. It's reflexive: it needs to refer back to something (I or me). You wouldn't say "Myself moved this motion..."
The pronoun "me" should also be used when someone else will perform the action to, or for, you. So you don't say, "If you have questions, please call Chadwick or myself," and never "If you have questions, please call Chadwick or I." No, you should say, "If you have questions, please call Chadwick or me." If you take Chadwick out of the equation, then it's clear: "If you have questions, please call me." You wouldn't say "please call I" or "please call myself."
Here are some examples of using 'myself' properly. In every case myself refers back to another pronoun (I):
- I prepared it myself.
- I saw myself in the mirror.
- I consider myself fortunate.
- I, myself, haven�t had that problem, but I know someone who has.
- They asked whether I, myself, had ever encountered that particular problem.
- It was good for the staff and myself (No: you should say the staff and me).
- He gave the motion to him and myself (No: he gave it to him and me).
- She and myself are going to the meeting. (No: She and I are going).
So: a motion can be moved by ME, bu NOT moved by myself. You CAN say "I moved it myself," although it sounds stuffy and contrived. You can also say, "I moved and Councillor So-and-so seconded," which puts it in the active voice, rather than the passive. But you should never, ever say "moved by myself."
In case you missed it, March 4 was National Grammar Day.
~~~~~
* Yes: 'it's' is correct here because that is a contraction of it is. The possessive version is without the apostrophe: 'its'. As it "its size is too small' or 'its height is too low.' I get irate seeing "it's" used as a possessive in Powerpoint slides. Or those unnecessary apostrophes in dates - 1960's and 1980's - that makes it possessive, not plural! Write 1960s and 1980s, no apostrophe.
** The plural of me is us and the plural of myself is ourselves. 'It was approved by us,' is correct (objective form, plural). So is 'We approved it' (subjective form, plural). But 'It was approved by ourselves' is incorrect. You could say, "We approved it ourselves' because the reflexive 'ourselves' now has an anchoring subjective pronoun to refer back to. 'It was approved by we three' is incorrect because the verb requires the objective pronoun here. The proper form is 'It was approved by us three.' Drop the 'three' and see how it reads.
You can say "This was a motion that we councillors approved Monday with great delight," because 'we councillors' is the subject of the sentence. To use 'us' you need to turn the sentence around and put the pronoun in the proper, objective place: "It was a motion that was delightfully moved by us councillors." In the former, however, you could easily be referring to just some of council or all depending on the situation, but in the latter it is unclear if the us refers to all or a portion of council and to my mind suggests all.
How about this one? "I believe that, for the most part, us small urban communities are the backbone of the province." Or do you prefer, "I believe that, for the most part, we small urban communities are the backbone of the province." Yes - we, because it's part of the subject (remove 'small urban communities' and see how it reads).[/indent]
Or 'been' and 'seen' as the first person past tense instead of was/have been and saw have been seeing? As in "I seen you arrive earlier today..." and "I been lookin' for a parcel..."
Or getting your animals "spaded" instead of "spayed" (which sounds like you hit them with your shovel instead of provide a veterinary surgical procedure...)?
Or "I have spoke to him..." instead of "I have spoken..." And the inevitable double negatives - "I didn't do nothin'..." Common phrasing, locally. I hear similar examples daily.
But these are generally heard, rather than seen, and in practice we tend to forgive the vernacular a multitude of sins.
And then there's that politically-thorny issue of ascribing to or removing gender from nouns to conform to current standards in political correctness. We no longer refer to a female "chairman" but is she a "chairperson" (a clumsy construct) or "chairwoman" (which sounds too akin to charwoman for comfort) or just "chair" in which case she gets downgraded to furniture. And 'madam chair' - which I hear at some meetings - makes me wonder if there's a 'mister sofa' or 'ms coffee table' in the family as well.
We no longer have fishermen, and fisherpeople is too awkward, so we get the gender-neutral term 'anglers', as if we're reading an Isaac Walton book on thee highe arte of angling. But even when the angler is male, we don't call him a 'fisherman' any more, as if that's somehow incorrect, yet it's perfectly descriptive. Many of the attempts to construct alternate words for female participants bog down at the extra syllables when you try to feminize them, such as fisherwoman or firewoman. So we retreat to neutral terms like firefighter and angler.
Yet why were perfectly good terms actor and actress de-sexed and grouped under the formerly masculine term actor? Is there some stigma in being an 'actress' but not found in being an 'actor'?
English is a wonderful but problematic language. And so we are all made richer from learning and wrestling with its multifarious exceptions to its seemingly innumerable rules. One of its great delights is that it is in constant flux and so revitalizes itself with every generation.[/indent]