6. Me me me, not I myself
Psychological factors make this an extremely common error.
WRONG Please send a list of staff addresses to Paul and I.
RIGHT Please send a list of staff addresses to Paul and me.
EASY FIX
To check which is correct, remove the other person or people in the equation.
The right answer will then be obvious:
Please send a list of staff addresses to [REMOVE "Paul and"] me.
Many people try to avoid the issue by writing "myself" or "yourself".
That's equally bad, if not worse! It's grammatically wrong, and (oops!) is interpreted by some people as a sign of a poor education.
WRONG I'll send a list of staff addresses to Paul and yourself.
RIGHT I'll send a list of staff addresses to you and Paul.
"Myself" and "yourself" are correct in only two situations:
1. To emphasise or contrast: "Paul knows everyone, but I myself am new here." "Your sister has blue eyes, but you yourself have brown eyes."
2. When you're doing something to yourself: "I ask myself..." "You set high standards for yourself."
Weight.
10 years ago
1 comment:
studeeing grahmer and punktation is sech a waist of ttime! Like, I myself don't need no help in the vokabular deepartement - geez!
Seriously, though, I've enjoyed these last few posts (after all, I am a self-proclaimed language nerd). I'd highly recommend "The Grammar Bible" for further reading/practice. It's educational and enjoyable to read - what a crazy combination!
Other than that, how's life? We need to discuss Ingatius. I'm not going to lie - I'm really struggling to finish the last few chapters...does that make me lame? Almost everyone who has seen me reading the book lately has told me what a great book it is and yet...I feel like I'm slogging through mud every time I pick it up. On the other hand, this Ursula Le Guin book I'm reading is outstanding - what's my problem?!!
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