You Sound Wrong and Don’t Even Know It

Fix “me,” “myself,” and “I” in 60 seconds

Image created by me but not by myself. I had help.

Every day, I read and hear “me,” “myself,” and “I” so badly misused that even my coffee isn’t strong enough.

Me, myself, and I are suing for grammatical abuse and emotional distress.

I blame it on confusion, laziness, media, news, blogs, and, you know, all human spam we’re confronted with. Me, myself, and I are not 3 different people. They’re all the same person. You.

“Snoopy and me went to the store” sounds casual, but it is wrong. “Me” cannot be the subject of the sentence. It has to be “Snoopy and I went to the store.”

“Snoopy and myself baked cookies” is worse. Myself is a reflexive pronoun, which means it points back to the subject. You would never write, “Myself baked cookies.” So, don’t do that.

Use “I” when you are doing something. “Snoopy and I laughed at the joke.”
Use “me” when something is happening to you. “They gave the award to Snoopy and me.”
Use “myself” only when the sentence turns back on you. “I look at myself in the mirror.”

There is a simple test. Remove the other person and read the sentence again.