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.
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