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Sunsail Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Yourself/ by yourself

Hello
which one is correct and can you explain why ?

I want to do it by myself
I want to do it myself.

Best Regards
  

Top answer

Hi Sunsail I'd say that both could be used to mean the same thing: "I want to do it alone" / "I want to do it without anyone else's help". However, the first one (by myself) also suggests "in isolation". In other words, "I want to do it when nobody else is here".

— Yankee

  • Hi Sunsail I'd say that both could be used to mean the same thing: "I want to do it alone" / "I want to do it without anyone else's help".
  • However, the first one (by myself) also suggests "in isolation".
  • In other words, "I want to do it when nobody else is here".
  • The second one (myself) does not suggest that.
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3 Answers
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Hi Sunsail

I'd say that both could be used to mean the same thing: "I want to do it alone" / "I want to do it without anyone else's help".

However, the first one (by myself) also suggests "in isolation". In other words, "I want to do it when nobody else is here". The second one (myself) does not suggest that.
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Thanks
so grammatically both are correct."by" puts some stress in the meaning I guess.
Best Regards
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Hi Sunsail

I might put it this way:

In your sentence, saying "by myself" is a little bit ambiguous. If you only want to say that you don't want help doing it, then to me the use of "myself" would be clearer.
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