The use of I, me and myself?

This question has been answered · 16 replies
Forums · General English Grammar & Vocabulary, Listening & Speaking · General English Grammar Questions
1 2
When is it proper to use the above?
Approved answer (verified by )
'I' and 'me' are different cases of the personal pronoun.
Simply put, 'I' is used as the subject of a sentence, 'me' as the object.

Examples:
- I am a good swimmer. (well this is an easy one, we don't say 'Me am...')
- He kicked me. ('me' is the object of the sentence and thus we don't say 'He kicked I')

'Myself' is not a substitute to 'me' or 'I', but it is used to give emphasis, as in:
- She doesn't like it, but I myself find it very attractive. (we want to emphasize the difference between her opinion and my own)

'Myself' can be a substitute to 'me' when referring to an action taken about the speaker's person, like:
- I want to hit myself in the head. (we don't really say 'I want to hit me...')

As I am not a language teacher, those of you who are please comment or correct my remarks if wrong in any way! Emotion: smile
New Member43
Approved answer (verified by )
Another explanation:

All three are personal pronouns. "I" is the subjective form, used when the speaker is the subject of the sentence as in "I am a good swimmer", or when the speaker is a predicate nominative, as in "The best swimmer is I."

Use "me" as a direct object ("He kicked me"), as an indirect object ("He gave me the book"), or as the object of a preposition ("He gave the book to me").

"Myself" is the reflexive form, used when the subject and object are the same, as in "I want to hit myself on the head." It is also common, as dinosm indicates, to hear "myself" used to emphasize. Its use, however, should be limited to instances where the speaker genuinely intends to emphasize his or her importance. Like the word "very", it is overused.
New Member26
ALL REPLIES
You're almost correct, but using 'myself' for emphasis is really colloquial. Myself is used when the object of the action is the same as the subject. For example:

"I hurt myself." or "I shot myself in the foot."

The same thing goes with 'himself.' For example:

"He hurt himself." or "He shot himself in the foot."

Saying, "She doesn't like it, but I myself..." is not proper.
"In the old days when people studied traditional grammar, we could simply say, "The first person singular pronoun is I when it's a subject and me when it's an object,' but now few people know what that means. [. . .] The misuse of I and myself for me is caused by nervousness about me. [. . .] But the notion that there is something wrong with me leads people to overcorrect and avoid it where it is perfectly appropriate. People will say, 'The document had to be signed by both Susan and I' when the correct statement would be, 'The document had to be signed by both Susan and me.'

Trying even harder to avoid the lowly me, many people will substitute myself as in 'The suspect uttered epithets at Officer O'Leary and myself.' Myself is no better than I as an object. Myself is not a sort of all-purpose intensive form of me or I . Use myself only when you have used I earlier in the same sentence
"On behalf of my family and me, we appreciate the........" or "On behalf of my family and I, we apprectiate the........"

Are either of the two correct? If so, which one? I am writing a letter of resignation. Thanks!
You wouldn't say "on behalf of I", would you?

You need this:

On behalf of my family and me, we ....

CJ
Veteran Member71,596
Moderator: A super-user who takes care of the forums. You have the ability to message a moderator privately should you wish. These users have a range of elevated privileges including the deletion, editing and movement of posts when needed.Proficient Speaker: Users in this role are known to maintain an excellent grasp of the English language. You can only be promoted to this role by the Englishforums team.
Use "I" when it is the subject of the sentence:

I am the owner of that book. I want to read that book.

Use "me" when it is the object:

That book belongs to me. Hand that book to me.

Use "myself" to modify the subject:

I wrote that book myself.
Here's a simple way we were taught at school .... I often refer back to that lesson when deciding between using 'me/myself/I' in cases which include another person e.g. John and me/myself/I went to school or the ball hit John and me/myself/I .... split the two people and re-say the sentence as if it refers to just ONE person .... then put John back in! So in the examples about we wouldn't say "me went to school" or "myself went to school", we would say "I went to school" so add John back in and we have "John and I went to school". Similarly, in the other example we wouldn't say "the ball hit I" or "the ball hit myself", we would say "the ball hit me" so add John back in and we have "the ball hit John and me". No need to remember rules about objects, subjects and other grammatical terms .... just break it down then add it back again! Last week in my office, my boss was deliberating correct usage in an email. I told him my "trick" and he realised that asking someone to "Please email Sarah and myself" should have read "Please email Sarah and me" because when you break it down, you wouldn't ask someone to "Please email myself" would you?! .... (Unless you were sending the email to yourself!!!!) I hope this tip helps someone out there :-)
Show more

Places to start


Social


  • Like us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Google+

    • Browse Englishforums


    Help