I HATE it when someone uses pronouns incorrectly. My pet peeve pronoun is the reflexive pronoun. Myself, yourself, themselves, etc. Professional people screw this up all the time. “Please give it to myself.”
NOOOOOOoooooo. You are using “myself” as an indirect object pronoun! Hellooooo.
This pronoun reflects back to the person doing the action. I washed it myself. But I gave it to him. Not to himself. Only he can give it to himself.
Let’s go with a really clear example. Last night I heated a frozen pizza, per instructions, in my oven at 400 degrees. After precisely 17 minutes, I turned off the oven, took a pot holder and opened up the oven.
As I removed the metal baking sheet, it slipped out of my hand and I instinctively grabbed it with my left hand. No pot holder. 400 degrees.
Frankenhand
I did it to myself. Frankenhand.
ouch, hurts just to think of it.
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Yes it does. 😦 I’m a knucklehead.
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When you started talking about the pizza I thought to myself, “she’s been reading my blog too much” because that paragraph sounded like something I’d write. Especially the “precisely 17 minutes”. I’m proud of you.
As for burning your hand, I’ve been squirming since you told me about it last night.
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When i wrote ‘precisely 17 minutes” I thought of you, lol. I’m going crazy typing with one hand.
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Ask Tim if he can give you a hand 😂
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Good one.
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Ouch!! I have no idea how you typed this. Hope it feels better soon!
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Thank you! I type with 2 hands and type fast. This is driving me crazy.
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Ouch, burns are horrible. My pet grammar peeve is “Her and I”! Heal quickly!
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I hate that too. Bad grammar becomes so normal that eventually wrong becomes acceptable.
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Pingback: Frankenhand and the Frozen Pizza | The Zen Hiker
Yay! Although you are actually making poetic fun of me.🍕🍕
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Sounds very painful, and it had to happen right at Christmas too. Hope it heals well and you are not one-handed too long. If it throbs, hold it up and that should help some.
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Thank you! I went to the doctor yesterday And she put this miracle salve on and it’s crazy how much it healed overnight. Crazy.
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Good news! Glad you went to doctor.
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Oh, I’m so sorry! That does look painful, and probably very inconvenient as well, since it’s your hand.
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Haha yes, much more inconvenient for me than if it were someone else’s hand lol.
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Okay, let’s get down to what is really important. Did you save the pizza?
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Sorrier still that you burned you hand. Hope it doesn’t take too long to heal.
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Alas, the pizza, when I flipped my hand out as fast as possible, flung itself out of the pan and almost flew into the refrigerator. You can’t trust pizza’s these days.
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Ouch. I’m sorry you hurt yourself. (Do people really say “please give it to myself”? Wow! )
I’m also having problems typing as I hurt my wrist and arm recently, but it doesn’t stop us, does it? 🙂 English is a strange language…
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Yes, an inordinate number of people say that. Or things like “you can give it to him or myself.” I get pronoun rage.
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What gives me ‘pronoun rage’ is when amateur authors don’t use them in place of first names. Oh and stuff like “One should never do what we want”. Grrrr…!
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I totally agree.
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Sorry about your ouch. I guess you are a teacher? I used to attend writing groups and we met a few teachers. They slowed us down. :-).
About a year ago one of my granddaughters came to me with a writing problem. I knew her professor followed different rules. I didn’t have any rules, so I was unable to lend her a hand.
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Ha! Yes, I am. And right now I could use a hand, lol. Thanks for reading this post 😃
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What can one say? just ouch 😦
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It’s almost completely healed because of this miracle cream the doctor used which can only be gotten by prescription. I’m able to just use bandaids today. Thank you for your concern and not laughing at my clumsiness, lol.
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Owie! Hope it feels better.
Every so often I’ll do a pet peeves post and since I beta for fanfiction and the occasional published author I have a host of them, lol.
The biggest, right now, is the misplaced comma! (Or far, far too many of them.)
I was taught that a comma goes where it feels natural to take a breath, and that’s what I do.
Another one is the me/I he/him conundrum! It’s amazing how many writers do not think about it. My rule of thumb is: if the single pronoun sounds right without the other person then that’s the one to use. A lot don’t go by that *sigh*
ie. Me and him went to the fair on Saturday. Correct version: He and I went to the fair on Saturday.
The both make my OCD readers mind cringe.
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I feel there is no excuse for bad grammar (not counting my own mistakes, lol), especially by writers. One point on the use of commas. I had a linguistics professor in a course based solely on the history of the English language, teach us that one of the biggest errors that people make is the infrequent use of commas. So I may be one of those people whose writing you find annoying, lol.
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Lol, nah. For some reason I can read something and my brain translates it to something I understand. It’s when I beta ☺☺
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😃
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Sorry about the burn – I do that kind of thing frequently. However, I have noticed that using “myself” instead of “me” has become so common that it is starting to sound correct. Such as, “Please return the form to myself or my office.” Ugh. I feel like such a crank to be bugged by it but come on.
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EXACTLY! I don’t think people think it’s wrong.
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OUCCCHHH!!! That bloody hurts! I hope the bandage looks worse than it actually is/was.
My grammar’s not that fantastic, but that use of “give to myself”does sound jarring!
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Today I am healed! Because I took care of my hand per instructions.
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😀
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