[Instructors: PDFs of this exercise and its answer key are at the end of this post.]
The personal pronoun myself is often used incorrectly, making the speaker sound uninformed. To use myself correctly, remember that all personal pronouns have a matching reflexive pronoun: me-myself, you-yourself, she-herself, etc. Being reflexive means the word reflects on something you do yourself (I ate the whole pie myself.) A reflexive pronoun is always the object in a sentence, never the subject, so saying Myself will lead the meeting or Mr. Singh and myself will handle the account is incorrect; myself is never a substitute for me or I.
To make sure you are using myselfcorrectly, consider these points.
- When reflexive pronouns are used to show emphasis, they are called intensive pronouns: I wrote the report myself. The sentence would be correct without myself.
- When the speaker is both the subject and object of the sentence, use the reflexive: After the presentation, I treated myself to a night out with friends.
Correct the following sentences containing myself. Note whether the rewritten sentence uses myself as the object [O], as an intensive [I], or as subject/object [S/O]. Mark the sentence with a [C] if myself is being used correctly and note why.
- Please contact Maria, Sooyi, or myself with questions about the new regulations.
- Let myself know when you’ve completed reviewing the attached report.
- I can see me in the photo.
- Give the package to Joe or myself.
- I myself saw the result of the quake’s damage.
- For people like myself, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a good job.
- The manager and myself met to discuss the matter, and we were in complete agreement.
- My colleagues and myself worked through the night to make the deadline.
- I brought in the client myself and should therefore be the liaison.
- Mark said he’d be delighted to set up a phone call for myself and Ben.
