×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Me or Myself?

Me or Myself?

Me or Myself?

(OP)
This was recently the topic of some spirited debate between a co-worker and I in my office:

When I write a letter and want to close by saying that the individual may contact me or another person with questions, I always write: "Please feel free to contact Joe Smith or me with any questions."

As I understand it, this is proper grammer. You would not say: "Please contact I with questions" or "Please contact myself with questions", you would use "me".

However, I rarely see "me" used in this context. Am I the only one?

Sadly, it often crosses my mind that the recipient may get a chuckle from my percieved "poor grammer". It's a shame that the improper forms of this closing has become so ubiquitous that the proper form seems incorrect. - By the way, I never did convince my co-worker to use the proper form. He said it didn't sound right.

RE: Me or Myself?

"Myself" has two correct forms of usage:

a) Where the object of the action is the same as the speaker; e.g. "I corrected myself."

b) As an emphatic pronoun, to reinforce the simple pronoun "I"; e.g. "I was wondering about that issue myself."

"Myself" should NOT be used as part of a compound subject of a verb, where "me" or "I" would be the correct singular form; i.e. "Please feel free to contact Joe or me" is correct; "Feel free to contact Joe or myself" is incorrect, even though it "feels" better somehow.

Also, since we are in "nit-picking" mode:

a) This was actually the subject of a debate "between a co-worker and me", NOT "between a co-worker and I".

b)The system by which words are joined together to form intelligible utterances is "grammar". "Grammer" is a little old lady who crochets doilies and drinks tea.

:->

RE: Me or Myself?

(OP)
I knew I should have proof read my post better. I figured someone would catch somthing!

It appears I proved my point in the very first sentence of my post! Oops! :)

RE: Me or Myself?

To quote the Queen of the UK,GB and other bits and bobs, she always says "My husband and I.." rather than "Phil and me..". She must know Queen's english I guess and tinytim22 must either be correct or have a touch of royal blood in them, or both.

corus

RE: Me or Myself?

Tinytim22,
Why not use "the undersigned" since YOU are writing the letter?

Joe Borg
www.methode-eur.com

RE: Me or Myself?

"My husand and I sat on the throne" is correct.  "Phil and me sat on the throng" would be wrong.

However "Please contact my husband and I" would be wrong, whereas "Please contact Phil and me would be correct".

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

RE: Me or Myself?

Tinytim,
Why not put emphasis on yourself?

 Please contact myself....
 Alternatively, Joe Smith can help you with any questions.

RE: Me or Myself?


Corus, isn't the verb active (I) passive (me) that determines whether the Queen is right or wrong ?

RE: Me or Myself?

If you're speaking queen's english then logically she's always right.

corus

RE: Me or Myself?

It depends on whether you're the doer of the action or the one being acted upon - subject vs. object

I ran to the store

Tom popped me on the head.


Thus, you would feel free to contact me, while I would feel free to contact you.

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

RE: Me or Myself?

I believe ER II would concur with both of the following forms as being correct "Queen's English":

"My husband and I are deeply embarrassed about the behaviour of our children"

and

"The behaviour of our children is a source of deep embarrassment to Phil and me"

RE: Me or Myself?

Hi, myself flamby.

I have regularly used this without knowing how correct it is and why.

Ciao.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources