How To Use “Myself” In A Sentence

I’m keeping my promise to a dear friend of mine by writing this blog post.

There’s a grammatical error bug going around her office—and it’s contagious. Her career is decades-strong across all forms of communications, but she’s never seen or heard such a grammatical error being used on the daily until she joined her latest team. It’s infected her peers’ verbal speech and email composition.

That’s right: They all have the case of the myself.

Here’s how it usually goes down. They write or speak a sentence like this:

“Jan, Greg and myself went to the conference.”

Or

“My supervisor scheduled a meeting for Chris and myself on Thursday.”

Some of you are cringing. And some of you don’t see the issue.

This blog post is for you.

How NOT To Use Myself In A Sentence

The simplest way to decide if you should use myself in a sentence is by leaving it alone in the sentence.

For example, would you say, “Myself went to the conference” or “My supervisor scheduled a meeting for myself on Thursday”?

Of course not.

You would say “I went to the conference” and “My supervisor scheduled a meeting for me on Thursday.”

Here’s an easy way to remember the difference between these first-person pronouns:

I = Subject Pronoun

Me = Object Pronoun

Myself = Reflexive Pronoun

It’s the role of “myself” as a reflexive pronoun that can often be confusing. But it doesn’t have to be. Keep reading.

Myself: The Reflexive Pronoun

A reflexive pronoun is a special kind of pronoun. It’s used in a sentence when the object of the sentence is the same as the subject.

If you are both the subject and object of a first-person sentence, then the object of your sentence can be “myself.” That’s because the person performing the action in the sentence (“I”) is the same person who is receiving the action of the sentence (“myself”).

In other words, if “I” is the subject of the sentence and the object of the sentence still refers to you, then “myself” can be the object.

Some examples include:

“I scheduled a meeting for myself on Thursday.”

“I see myself going to that conference.”

The misuse of myself is finally solved, if I do say so myself.

Don’t think so? Still have questions about how to use myself in a sentence? Ask your grammar question below.