Answer: Yes.

Explanation:

There are two ways—and two ways only—that you can refer to yourself as “myself” in a sentence. Both of them involve sentences that also include either “I” or “me.”  In this case, “myself” is an intensive pronoun, added for emphasis. The other correct usage is as a reflexive pronoun, for example when “I” is the subject of the sentence—the actor—and “myself” is the object—the one acted upon. Here’s an example: “I embarrass myself when I use incorrect grammar.”

Here’s what you can’t do—and if you think you can, you are wrong: You cannot replace “I” or “me” in a sentence with “myself.” That use is incorrect, despite the frequency with which it’s used in the business world. It’s used so frequently, in fact, that I can imagine a day when the grammatical rule is changed to reflect use. However, I will fight that change with the last breath in my body.

The problem usually occurs when the writer or speaker is referring to themselves in conjunction with another person. One easy way to see if “myself” is correct is to take that other person out of the equation.

Example: If you have any questions, please call John or myself.

Would you ever say “Please call myself”? I hope not.  See more examples here and more information about personal pronouns here. Take this quiz if you like: Pronoun quiz: This time it’s personal

Are you a business person (or a politician—they’re pretty bad too)? Do you refer to yourself as “myself” incessantly and incorrectly? Please stop. It makes you look stupid.

I’ll admit that incorrect use of “myself” is my #1 pet peeve. Usually I would have said “makes you look less intelligent than you might wish” instead of “makes you look stupid.” In this case, I just barely held myself back from typing “makes you look like an idiot.” Probably in caps.

The better-tempered Richard Nordquist provides more information about intensive pronouns.

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Answer: a.

Explanation:

To decide which pronoun you need here, just leave Joe home: “Would you like __ to attend the Tweetup in New York next week?” If you’d put  I in there, you need more help than I can give you. Myself? If you think that’s the correct answer, I don’t even want to know. Go back and read my many posts on me, myself and I until you’ve absorbed the lesson about referring to yourself AS myself and how it makes you look less intelligent than you might wish.

On the other hand, when you’ve already launched into a sentence and get to the point where you have to decide, it’s hard to stop and think. That’s when the drive to overcorrect leads people to often say I  because it seems like the more proper form. Funnily enough, it’s quite often people with typically good grammar that make that type of mistake. It’s what is sometimes called an overcorrection or incorrection. Essentially, it’s an error that is caused by correcting something that doesn’t need to be corrected (in this case, the tendency to say “me”), so that you end up making a mistake through the sheer fear of error.

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“The number of security holes found during the penetration test left _________ shaken.”

a. the CSO and me

b. the CSO and I

c. the CSO and myself

Answer: a

Explanation:

As a subject, the correct personal pronoun is me. The old trick is to take the other person out of the sentence. Most people will quickly realize that “The number of security holes found left I shaken” is not correct. Nevertheless, there’s some perception that I is the correct pronoun to use when you talk about someone else and yourself. Wrong. As the subject (the doer) in a sentence, the correct personal pronoun is I; as a subject (the one done to), it’s me. (Unless you are both subject and object, as I’ll explain below.)

And then there’s the unsuccessful dodge of thinking that you can just replace either I or me with myself. That doesn’t work either — you can only refer to yourself AS yourself reflexively, when the subject and object (the doer and the one done to) are the same individual. As in “I embarrass myself when I use the wrong personal pronoun.”

Paul Brians attributes the error  (along with the incorrect use of I) to a reluctance to use the word me:

Let’s see if we can apply some common sense here. The misuse of “I” and “myself” for “me” is caused by nervousness about “me.” Educated people know that “Jim and me are goin’ down to slop the hogs,” is not elegant speech, not “correct.”  > Read on

See more on the myself issue here and here. Oh and lots more here. I know I’m fighting a losing battle — business people don’t seem to be able to grasp the fact that this error makes them look stupid. Nevertheless, while still there is breath in my body, I must not allow myself to stop fighting.

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Answer: b

Explanation:
Here you have it — one of only two ways you can correctly refer to yourself AS “yourself.” The other way is as added emphasis, as in “I, myself, find it almost unbearable when people refer to themselves incorrectly  by a reflexive pronoun.”

Use the old trick of taking the other person out of the equation:

I requested a copy of the report for myself. (You wouldn’t say “I requested a copy of the report for me” or “I requested a copy of the report for I,” right?)

It’s reflexive because the subject (I) is the same person as the object (myself).

It works the same way as:

I embarrassed myself.

I treated myself.

I hurt myself.

I overextended myself.

I convinced myself.

Only I can do anything to “myself,” grammatically speaking. No one else can call “myself.” Likewise, no one can do anything along with “myself.”

Although this may sound harsh, yourself is incapable of conducting any kind of business. “You” on the other hand, might make the cover of Forbes — and be grammatically correct in your interview to boot.

See more about first person pronoun errors here.

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“Maddie, Ed, Deanna, and Jennifer are riding together,” said Chad. “Michelle will be riding with myself, and …”

With myself? I thought. Why was Chad talking in that pompous way? Why didn’t he just say with me? This kind of myself-abuse was one of my grammar peeves.

Syntacticians have a name for what Chad did, but it’s not a very well-chosen name. They call it a Principle A violation. If I had named it, I would have called Principle A the Reflexive Rule. It’s the rule that says that in Standard English (and other languages, too), reflexive pronouns are used when a grammatical object of a verb or preposition refers to someone already mentioned earlier in the same clause…

Whitman goes on to explain how he embarrassed himself (note correct use of reflexive pronoun) — not by using myself incorrectly but by correcting someone else who had (in, perhaps, less than ideal circumstances for a teachable moment). Oh, he was correct, grammatically. But were his motives suspect?

Explanation:
As the object of a sentence, the first person singular pronoun is me. The easy way to figure out which to use is to take the other person out of the equation. (You would never say “The decision is up to I,” would you?)

As the subject of the sentence, the first person singular pronoun is I. For example: “The CFO and I will make the final decision.” (You would never say “Me will make the final decision,” would you?)

And never, never use myself in either situation. See more about why not here.

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Myself abuse is rampant online and nowhere more so than in business communications. My fond hope is that the following rant might shine a little light into the dark corners of the Internet and, perhaps, stop one person from saying myself when the right word is I or me.

As Dr. Grammar says, “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.” How true! How sad.

What you should make note of from that, whether or not you know the parts of a sentence, is that myself is NOT one of your options for the subject or object of a sentence (except in the case where the subject and object are the same individual — I’ll explain more about that later).

Here are some terribly typical examples of myself abuse:

CEO: “Both the CFO and myself are very pleased with the second quarter results.” Ugh.

When you’ve got a compound subject (more than one “doer” in a sentence), you can get an idea of how wrong myself is by taking the other person out of the equation. In this case, you’re left with: “Myself am very pleased with the second quarter results.” Now, what you have understand is that the first sentence sounds every bit as stupid as that one to people who have a grasp of this grammatical rule. And there could be some listening to you.

CEO: “The second quarter results delighted both the CFO and myself.” (Does “The second quarter results delighted myself” sound okay to you? I hope not.)

Let’s look at a couple more all-too typical examples of myself abuse:

Wrong: John or myself will be available for questions after the presentation. (Myself will be available for questions after the presentation.)

Right: John or I will be available for questions after the presentation. (I will be available for questions after the presentation.)

Wrong: Please call John or myself if you have any questions. (Please call myself if you have any questions.)

Right: Please call John or me if you have any questions. (Please call me if you have any questions.)

The most common correct use of the word myself is as a reflexive pronoun. (This is what I was talking about earlier.) That means that the subject and the object of the sentence are the same individual. Here’s an example of how that works in a sentence: I embarrass myself when I use the wrong word.

Only I can do anything to myself, grammatically speaking. Same thing for you and yourself, he and himself, she and herself. If, for example, anyone else is doing the calling in the above sentence, they have to call me – myself is not taking calls.

I, myself is a construction that some find objectionable but that is not strictly incorrect. It’s generally used to emphasize a personal preference or difference and to indicate that the preference or difference may vary from the norm.

Here’s an example:

“I, myself, would rather stick sharp objects in my eyes than hear the CEO refer to himself as ‘myself’ one more time.”

The issue with myself abuse may be mostly that people can’t stop and think which pronoun to use when they’re in the middle of speaking. However, even if you can’t quickly work it out, I suggest you choose either I or me and run with it because that will give you a 50-50 chance of being right. Don’t just default to myself — that will make you wrong 100 percent of the time.

Ivy Wigmore is Content Editor on WhatIs.com and chief grammar blogger on Writing for Business. You can follow her on Twitter @tao_of_grammar.

The CFO and ____ are very optimistic about the potential of Metro Ethernet.
a. me
b. myself
c. I

Answer: c

Explanation: I and me are first person singular pronouns. As the subject of the sentence (the “doer”), it’s I. As the object (the focus of the sentence’s action), it’s me. In neither case is myself ever correct.

See more in my guest post for Turner Ink: Abusing “myself” — Understanding the first person singular.

If you have any questions, please call Peggy or ________. a. me b. myself c. I

Answer: A (me)

The easy way to decide whether to use me or I when you refer to yourself and another person is to take the other person out of the equation. (You would never say “Please call I.”)

Why not myself? The only proper way to refer to yourself as yourself is reflexively, to say something like: “I distinguish myself from lesser writers by always choosing the correct pronoun.”