Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Pick a pronoun, any pronoun

No! Don't!

Please pick the {correct} pronoun.
Recently, I have noticed there is a pattern of people over-using the word, "myself".
Let me explain what "myself" is.
"Myself" is a relfexive pronoun.
It is the pronoun one should use with a verb in which the action of the verb is happening to oneself.
Here are some examples:
I ask myself.
I reminded myself.
I dressed myself.
See?  In each sentence above the verb's action happened to me.  That is why I used, "myself" as the pronoun.

People, I am thinking attempting to sound smart, use myself all the time.
They use myself as the object of the preposition.
Here is an example:  Please give your completed permission forms to Jim or myself.
STOP!!
Correct:  Please give the completed permission forms to Jim or me.
Trust me.
They use myself when they should just use the simple, first person pronoun, "I".
Here is an example:  My wife, Kathy, my daughter, and myself went to the basement to seek shelter.
No!
Correct:  My wife, Kathy, my daughter, and I went to the basement to seek shelther.

Gosh, I wish this could go viral b/c my ears pure sting when I hear people who want to sound smart over-using the poor little pronoun "myself".  There is a time and a place for this lovely pronoun.  Unfortunately, it is being over-used and linguistically abused.
Here are the people I hear using it:  news reporters, preachers, teachers, principals, doctors, ...pues the list goes on and on!
Once you start listening for it, it will drive you crazy too.


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