The Weltchek Weekly

• Myself, Lindsay, and Mark will be on today’s call.
• The team consists of myself and two others.
• Many of us, including myself, get down to Washington, D.C. on a regular basis.

All three statements use myself incorrectly. Here’s what the speakers should have said—and why:

• Lindsay, Mark, and I will be on today’s call.
  • Lindsay, Mark, and I is the subject of the sentence. I is a subject pronoun. Myself is not.
• The team consists of two others and me.
  • Consist of is what’s called a phrasal verb—a verb followed by a preposition, in this case of. Me always follows prepositions, not myself.
• Many of us, including me, get down to Washington, D.C. on a regular basis.
  • Including is a preposition, too, making me the correct choice.

So, when do you use myself? Much less often than you do either me or I.

Myself should be used in only two ways:

1. When the action refers back to the subject, for example, I see myself in the mirror. (Hint: you see yourself in the mirror’s reflection, and myself, like yourself, is a reflexive pronoun.)
2. When you want to add some emphasis, for example, I, myself, come up with the ideas for this post—and sometimes it’s a challenge!

For more on the topic, read, Me or I? Not Myself and Myself, Yourself, Herself, Himself, Themselves.