Learning English grammar the easy way – me, myself and I

This blog post is part of a series of posts that aim to correct common English grammar mistakes.

“Me”, “Myself” and “I” are all used when talking about yourself. But it becomes confusing, especially when you are talking about someone else as well in the same sentence. When you are talking about someone else at the same time as yourself you always put their name before yours! (It’s good manners as well as correct English). To work out whether to use “me” or “I” you remove the other person from the sentence, so you are just talking about yourself. Then see which sounds correct: “Me is going to the movies” or “I am going to the movies”. “I” sounds right here so you use “I” when referring to yourself and someone else in this sentence. For example –

“I and John went to the movies” = incorrect

“John and I went to the movies” = correct

Or with “me” –

“The ticket man gave the movie tickets to John and me” = correct

“The ticket man gave the movie tickets to me and John” = incorrect

You only use “myself” when you have already used “I” in the sentence, making you the subject of the sentence. For example –

“Sometimes I talk to myself” = correct

“Sometimes I talk to me” = incorrect

Next Grammar mistake – “Who and Whom” →