You're right, @Janie B. The problem is that "I" and "myself" are used wrongly so frequently that we are tempted to doubt ourselves... The use of "myself" rather than "me" or "I" is, I think, an attempt to sound less posh - "my husband and myself" rather than "my husband and I" (which is of course correct, but could make you sound like the Queen...) - or "Myself and John decided to climb Snowdon" - because "me and John" sounds (and is) wrong, but "John and I" somehow sounds too posh. Sigh...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Interesting about not wanting to sound too posh, @Liriodendron...
This all reminds me of "allowing" my kids to use "dice" for a singular one. My brother insisted on his using the (correct?) "die" for just the one. Language changes all the time, and, as a general rule, I accept it if it doesn't obfuscate the meaning. I guess when playing Monopoly my kids' cousins could be looking around for a second die when asked to "pass the dice", but with most of their other friends, one would be sufficient... ho hum...
(From the www:
According to the Oxford Dictionary (US and UK versions) the word “dice” is used for both singular and plural. It also mentions that the use of “die” is becoming increasingly uncommon.)
I agree with you about language changes @Janie B but I still cannot bring myself to use, for example, prank as a verb. Likewise, no matter how often it is used transitively by others, prank’s close relative ‘to kid’ is an intransitive verb in my world (which stalled around 1970).
Another date quirk I have noticed is that we say ‘ [the year]Two thousand, two thousand and one, two thousand and two’ etc but then it changes to Twenty ten, twenty eleven and so on.
Personally I cannot handle well the American habit of only using hundreds and not thousands especially when talking of prices. Two thousand three hundred dollars is more accessible to me than twenty three hundred dollars.
American English has some annoying quirks, and I hate to find them in novels supposedly set in the UK. eg Next time I write her, where the British character would say, next time I write to her...
Posts
Although this is an American site, the rules are the same.
This all reminds me of "allowing" my kids to use "dice" for a singular one. My brother insisted on his using the (correct?) "die" for just the one. Language changes all the time, and, as a general rule, I accept it if it doesn't obfuscate the meaning. I guess when playing Monopoly my kids' cousins could be looking around for a second die when asked to "pass the dice", but with most of their other friends, one would be sufficient... ho hum...
(From the www:
Personally I cannot handle well the American habit of only using hundreds and not thousands especially when talking of prices. Two thousand three hundred dollars is more accessible to me than twenty three hundred dollars.
eg Next time I write her, where the British character would say, next time I write to her...