I don't want this to happen to me.

[tufguy]

1) I don't want this to happen to me.

2) I don't want this to happen to myself.

Which one is correct? Sometimes I get confused as to where to use "I" or "me" and where to use "myself" in these kinds of sentences. Could you please tell help me?

 

[Annabel Lee]

1) I don't want this to happen to me.

2) I don't want this to happen to myself.

Which one is correct?

Only "1)" is correct. "Me" is not co-referent with the subject of its most local clause -- an infinitive clause, whose subject is "this" -- and therefore should not be reflexive ("myself"). "I" is the subject of a different, higher clause.

 

[Tarheel]

Use "myself" like this. (See below.)

I did it myself.

I'm all by myself.

 

[Annabel Lee]

The sentences below are grammatically similar to Tufguy's example and do take the reflexive:

They don't want me to talk to myself. [match -- reflexive should be used]
They don't want you to talk to yourself. [match -- reflexive should be used]

But:

They don't want me to talk to you. [mismatch -- reflexive can't be used]
They don't want you to talk to me. [mismatch -- reflexive can't be used]

The following are ungrammatical:

They don't want me to talk to yourself.
They don't want you to talk to myself.

 

[Tarheel]

I recently wrote a poem ("Myself") in which I talk about talking to myself. (I don't really do it that much, but in the poem I do.) In the poem I talk to myself, and the words are visible. (You can do things in a poem that don't happen in real life. )