Questions: Pronoun Types and Usage

Question 1

A colleague says: 'Please send the report to Tom and myself.' Is 'myself' the correct pronoun here?

• A. Yes — 'myself' is more formal and polite when referring to yourself
• B. Yes — when there are two recipients, a reflexive pronoun is appropriate
• C. No — 'myself' is reflexive and must refer back to the subject of the clause; the correct form is 'me'
• D. No — 'myself' should only appear in questions

Answer: (C)

Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself) must refer back to the subject of the same clause. In 'Please send the report to Tom and myself,' the subject is an implied 'you' (the person being addressed) — not the speaker. There is no subject for 'myself' to reflect back to, so it's ungrammatical. The correct form is 'me' (objective case, object of the preposition 'to'). 'Myself' is frequently misused as a polite-sounding substitute for 'me,' but politeness does not change case requirements.

Question 2

Which sentence uses 'who' or 'whom' correctly?

• A. 'Whom is calling?' — subject of 'calling'
• B. 'To who should I address the letter?' — object of the preposition 'to'
• C. 'Whom did you hire for the position?' — object of 'hire'
• D. 'Who did they give the award to?' — object of the preposition 'to'

Answer: (C)

'Whom' is the objective form — use it when the pronoun is the object of a verb or preposition. In 'Whom did you hire?', reorder the sentence: 'You did hire whom?' Substitute him/her: 'You hired him' — 'him' fits, so use 'whom.' Option A should be 'Who is calling?' (subject). Options B and D should be 'whom' — to whom, to whom. Only option C uses the correct form.

Question 3

'Myself' can be used as a polite or formal substitute for 'me' in any context.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: False

'Myself' is a reflexive pronoun with two legitimate uses: (1) reflexive reference — when the subject and object are the same person ('She taught herself'), and (2) emphasis ('The president herself attended'). Using 'myself' instead of 'me' as an object ('Send it to myself') is grammatically incorrect regardless of how formal or polite it sounds. The correct form is always determined by grammatical role, not tone.

Question 4

The correct form of a pronoun — whether to use 'I' or 'me,' 'who' or 'whom' — depends on its grammatical role in the sentence, not on how formal the context is.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: True

Case is grammatical, not stylistic. 'I' is the subjective form (used as a subject); 'me' is the objective form (used as an object of a verb or preposition). This holds regardless of register. 'Between you and I' is incorrect in formal writing *and* informal speech; 'between you and me' is correct in both. The error of using 'I' for formality is extremely common but still grammatically wrong.

Question 5

What are the two legitimate uses of reflexive pronouns like 'myself' or 'himself'? Give an example of each.

Model answer: 1. Reflexive reference: when the subject and object of the same clause refer to the same person. Example: 'He hurt himself.' (subject 'he' and object 'himself' are the same person.) 2. Emphasis: to stress that the subject personally performed the action. Example: 'The director himself reviewed the script.' (emphasizes that no one else did it — the director did.)

Outside of these two uses, reflexive pronouns are ungrammatical. The most common error is using them as objects when the subject and object are different people ('Please call myself' — wrong, use 'me'). Testing for legitimate reflexive use: Does the pronoun refer back to the clause's own subject? If not, use the objective case (me, him, her, us, them) instead.