28
votes
Did King Charles III use the pronoun "myself" correctly?
This usage is explained in CoGEL (A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language).
(CoGEL § 6.27 Optional reflexive pronoun
The basic reflexive pronoun is sometimes optional, in the sense that it ...
- 23.9k
25
votes
-sen for -self in English: history and usage
It appears to be a dialectal variant from East Midlands where:
Reflexive pronouns are characterized by the replacement of "self" with sen (from Middle English seluen):
Y'usen – Yourself,
...
- 68.1k
16
votes
Did King Charles III use the pronoun "myself" correctly?
The Oxford English Dictionary has many examples of "myself" used like this. I searched only for "and myself". Examples:
1904 W. B. Yeats Let. 16 Apr. (1994) III. 582
Miss ...
- 25.8k
12
votes
"Why should one cook their own food" <--- Why can you use "someone" and "they" but not "one" and "they"?
The pronouns one and their are both personal pronouns, unlike the items someone, anyone, no-one and everyone. The latter are compounds where the first morpheme acts like the Determiner in a noun ...
- 48.7k
10
votes
Accepted
Reflexive pronoun use when subject is a subset of the prepositional object
If I were the writer, I'd say
John bought the tickets for himself and me
The reflexive pronoun is better placed after the subject and the verb phrase. Otherwise an even easier workaround would ...
- 92.9k
7
votes
'It's for your good' versus 'It's for your own good'
For s.o's good is not used alone in English.
Take your medicine. It's for your cold.
Take your medicine. *It's for your good
Normally it's accompanied by own (a reflexive intensifier) preceding and ...
- 109k
6
votes
Accepted
Is "Me vs Me" grammatically correct?
"me vs. myself"
Versus, from Latin vers, or versa, means facing or towards (imagine two pieces of wood lying against each other). The implication is of competing interests, of which one ...
- 2,790
5
votes
All along, all I was running away from was "me" or "myself"?
The second option you provided is the more correct of the two:
All along, all I was running away from was myself.
The "All along" in your sentence is sort of self-contained and doesn't ...
- 312
5
votes
Accepted
Why "him" not "himself"
A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (Quirk et al) explains:
The basic reflexive pronoun is sometimes optional, in the sense that
it may acceptably be replaced by the more usual 'ordinary' ...
- 87.2k
5
votes
Each other’s nose or each other’s noses?
Correct is somewhat subjective here. One version is more logical; the other is more common. Sometimes you must decide between standing on principle and sounding normal. Says one linguist:
What about ...
- 19.7k
4
votes
Accepted
"I have no sources to back me up" versus "back myself up"
It is, of course, always preferable to use the reflexive where appropriate.
However, I disagree that the reflexive is appropriate here; as the sentence is constructed, the sources are providing ...
- 59.6k
4
votes
"Including me" vs "Including myself"
The use of reflexive pronouns — compounds of a personal pronoun (my, your, our; him, her, it, them) and -self/selves — is grammatical only (1) when the subject and an object are the same:
07.09....
- 28.2k
4
votes
Accepted
To dance oneself
The following Google ngrams show that various [V] [P ref] [Adj]/[to N] (and including other prepositional heads) strings have been used for quite some time. But they also show that these unusual ...
- 87.2k
4
votes
Is it normal to say "Allow myself to introduce myself"?
OK, since the moderators haven't migrated this, I'll risk incurring criticism and answer it.
He should have said "Allow me to introduce myself."
It doesn't make sense to ask another person ...
- 28.1k
3
votes
Accepted
How can I rephrase this sentence without "itself"?
In most English dialects, "today itself" would not be used in this way. Instead, if we want to be clear that we are making no assertion about the situation on other days, we'd say:
"... today ...
- 2,042
3
votes
We Indians often say "I finished my homework today itself", which I know is wrong. Which is the correct way to say it?
The word 'today' has the literal sense of 'on this day'.
So in American English we would actually treat the word 'today' as self-emphasizing.
Simply saying "I finished my homework." without any ...
- 1,608
3
votes
We Indians often say "I finished my homework today itself", which I know is wrong. Which is the correct way to say it?
You could use "on this very day." But I don't believe very many English speakers would use an expression like that to emphasize something as banal as finishing their homework.
- 141
3
votes
Between youself and I
I feel like if you're trying to sound formal and professional, then this is most succinct and appropriate:
"As a result of our previous correspondence"
This avoids the issue entirely whilst ...
- 1,408
3
votes
All along, all I was running away from was "me" or "myself"?
Correct:
I was running from myself.
Why? "Myself" is a reflexive pronoun 1, which are nouns that are used in conjunction with the word that they describe. Hence, these words reflect the word to ...
- 138
3
votes
"There is a picture of myself on the wall." Can a reflexive pronoun be used without an antecedent like this?
There are many uses for the word myself, and to treat it as only a reflexive pronoun is too prescriptive — so prescriptive, in fact, that it would be wrong. The use you give is indeed accepted as ...
- 2,848
3
votes
Reflexive verbs
I cannot quantify (and I find it hard to imagine how to, anyway) and I think there will be some debatable cases (as your second example, devote, exemplifies).
This short entry, apart from giving ...
- 6,288
3
votes
Accepted
music can comfort yourself
No.
Reflexives are used where the subject and object of the verb are the same:
I comfort myself
You can comfort yourself
Here they are not. Music and painting are the subject of the verb, doing ...
- 103k
2
votes
"I feel myself unhappy" vs "I feel unhappy"
The wording "I feel unhappy" is commonplace in English today. "I feel myself unhappy" is, by contrast, rare and sounds odd to many native English speakers. This was not always the ...
- 169k
2
votes
Accepted
You cannot drink it by itself
The four examples you give of by itself, divide into two pairs.
The first and last are the same idiom, and the second and third are the same.
So if I say "The dog/house was by itself", it means it ...
- 64.9k
2
votes
We Indians often say "I finished my homework today itself", which I know is wrong. Which is the correct way to say it?
In some contexts, when there is doubt about the veracity of your statement, you can use do to add emphasis.
I did finish my homework today.
However, in most cases, you don’t need to add anything....
- 480
2
votes
We Indians often say "I finished my homework today itself", which I know is wrong. Which is the correct way to say it?
Users may be interested in reading a reply in this thread about Indian English. See non-native's reply on
Feb 26 '15 at 13:20
about use of only/itself in Indian English.
Is 'Single Sitting' ...
- 31
2
votes
"Including me" vs "Including myself"
Reflexive pronouns such as "myself" and "yourself" are supposed to be used when the subject and object of a sentence or statement are the same. You clothe yourself, I wash myself. Strictly speaking ...
- 12.7k
2
votes
Please put it on the rack above yourself
Could you take a picture of yourself?
Could you put it on the rack above you?
These two sentences are imperatives. Imperatives usually do not take an expressed subject. Instead they have an ...
- 48.7k
2
votes
Accepted
Yourself vs By yourself/On your own
Yourself stresses that YOU (personally), as opposed to others, can be the agent of that choice.
By yourself/on your own stresses more that you make this choice alone, without help from others.
So ...
- 37k
2
votes
'It's for your good' versus 'It's for your own good'
Brit here. It's OK, but perhaps a little old fashioned. You are more likely to hear, "It'll do you good," or "It's for your own good."
- 9,428
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