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“Please send it to Joe and myself.”

March 9th, 2009, by Kirk Mahoney
Video Professor: Make Your Bank Account Bloom

Reader Rick Mallonee submitted this one to me a few days ago.

Problem:
“Myself” is the wrong pronoun.

Explanation:
Rick wrote to me four days ago (Thanks, Rick!) that he heard (quote) “Please send it to Joe and myself.” (unquote) in a meeting.

This sentence is an imperative.

The speaker is imploring the listener to send something to Joe and to him.

This sentence can not be reflexive because the speaker is not talking about something that he is doing for/by himself.

“Myself” is a reflexive pronoun, so it is not the correct first-person-singular pronoun here in this non-reflexive sentence.

Instead, “me” is the correct pronoun.

To confirm this, imagine the speaker asking the listener to send something only to him: “Please send it to me.”

Adding “Joe and ” has no effect on the pronoun; “me” remains the correct pronoun.

Solution:
“Please send it to Joe and me.”

Copyright © 2009 Kirk Mahoney, Ph.D.

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