Me, Myself, and I

Me, Myself, and I Me, Myself, and I Me, Myself, and I By Maeve Maddox Just as the personal pronouns I and me are frequently used incorrectlythe subject form I used instead of the object form me, and vice versathe reflexive pronoun myself sometimes crops up where I or me belong. As personal pronouns, I and me stand in the place of nouns, while the reflexive pronouns like myself emphasize a noun or a pronoun that is already in use as a subject or object word. They are mirror words which reflect a word already expressed (hence the name reflexive). The reflexive pronoun forms are: Singular: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself Plural: ourselves, yourselves, and themselves The forms hisself, yourselfs, theirselfs and similar variations are dialect forms. The reflexive pronouns have two main uses: 1. They serve as the objects of verbs when the object is the same person or thing as the subject: I hurt myself. The baby saw herself in the mirror. We lost ourselves in the woods. 2. They are used to restate or emphasize another noun or pronoun in the sentence: The king himself signed the proclamation. These witnesses swear they saw it themselves. The following constructions are incorrect: Myself and the others attended the concert. Jack and yourself are my best friends. Editing for reflexive pronoun usage is easy. If the self word comes after the verb, you can see at a glance if it restates the subject. If the self word is anywhere else in the sentence, look to see if there is another noun or pronoun that it restates or emphasizes. If there is none, you probably need to use a personal pronoun instead of a reflexive one. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Rhetorical Devices for Rational WritingDeck the Halls13 Theatrical Terms in Popular Usage