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  • Writer's pictureEllen Young

Me, Myself, and I

Updated: Jan 1, 2022

Me, myself, and I are commonly interchanged and confused. Many people do not understand that there are certain rules for using these words. Here's a quick summary of the correct usage of me, myself, and I:


I - You only use "I" when you are referring yourself in the subject of the sentence. This means you are responsible for taking action.

Me - "Me" is a pronoun and should be used when the action will be performed by someone else to, or for, you.

Myself - "Myself" is a pronoun that is used when you are performing some action on yourself.


A way to figure out whether to use "me" or "I" is by removing the other subject of the sentence and seeing if it makes sense. For example, "Freddy and me are going to get ice cream." If you remove "Freddy" from the sentence, it becomes, "Me am going to get ice cream." The "are" becomes "am" as a result of a singular subject. Since the sentence doesn't make sense, you need to swap out "me" for "I."

Since it is correct to say "I am going to get ice cream," you would also say "Freddy and I are going to get ice cream."


There are some tricks to help you figure out when to use "myself" in a sentence too. A trick to remember is you only use "myself" if you have also used "I" in a sentence. Here is an example of an error: "If you have any questions, you can email myself." Since you are referring to an action someone else is taking, and "I" is not in the sentence, you should not be using "myself." Instead, you should use "me" by saying, "If you have any questions, you can email me." An example of "myself" used correctly is, "I am going to work on myself in the new year."


From now on, be mindful when you use me, myself, or I in a sentence, and correct others when you hear the words being misused.

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