by Barbara McNichol

Allow me to rant here.

After returning from recent visits to Colorado and Canada, I felt rejuvenated. But even among family and close friends, I still can’t take off my editor’s hat.

In many of our casual conversations, I bit my tongue when I heard misused pronouns such as “Him and I had lunch together” as “Me and her had a good time.”

Not wanting to take on human autocorrect duties (it leads to buzzkill, as you know), I prefer to provide examples of correct pronoun use here instead.

Correct Pronoun Examples

“I” – Subjective case (the subject of the sentence or phrase)

• Lance and I (not me) are going to the conference in L.A.
• My boss suggested Cindy and I (not me) help the new intern.

“Me” – Objective case (the object of the sentence or phrase)

• The new director promoted me (not myself) to manager.
• Our assistant invited William and me (not I) to her open house.

“Myself, her (him)/herself (himself), they/themselves ” – Reflexive case

• I congratulated myself on getting the project completed early.
• She helped herself to more supplies.
• Darren asked himself, “Do I work late again tonight?”
• They celebrated the award by themselves.

Notice these reflexive pronoun all have a related pronoun or noun preceding it in the sentence. Look for that distinction as a clue to knowing when (and when not) to use reflexive. After all, reflexive means reflecting back!

Please share your examples of misused pronouns here with the correct version, too.