Don’t be afraid of ‘me’ (Part 2)

‘Myself’ isn’t a substitute for ‘me’.

Some native speakers avoid using me by saying I.

While others now use myself to sound more formal or polite.

Don’t copy them. Both examples are wrong:

Please contact Sarah or I with any concerns.
Please contact Sarah or myself with any concerns.

Correct is:

Please contact Sarah or me with any concerns.

You can check this by changing to the plural or going it alone:

Please contact us with any concerns.
Please contact me with any concerns.

Likewise, it’s a mistake to say:

Sarah or myself will contact you next week.

Drop Sarah and you’d say:

I will contact you next week.

Adding Sarah changes nothing. It’s:

We will contact you next week.
Sarah or I will contact you next week.

So when do you use myself?

Myself is for when you’re expressly referring back to yourself in a sentence:

I kicked myself for agreeing to do a double shift.
I often ask myself why I became a nurse.
I learned a lot about myself working in that hospital.

Or you want to emphasise:

I invented that procedure myself.
I myself hate giving injections but my colleague likes doing them.

Which means when you use myself, your sentence also has I.

In short, if the plural would be:

we – use I
us – use me
ourselves – use myself

Switch to plural to be sure you’re correctly using me, myself or I.

And see here, here and here for more common confusions.

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