{"id":2497,"date":"2017-07-05T12:59:14","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T18:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=2497"},"modified":"2021-11-05T16:43:28","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T21:43:28","slug":"reflexive-pronouns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/reflexive-pronouns\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflexive Pronouns"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reflexive pronoun<\/strong> is one that refers back to itself: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.<\/span> <\/em>It is used when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same. It can act as either an object or an indirect object.<\/p>\n

Examples
\n<\/strong><\/em>Karl<\/span> will give himself<\/span> the day off from doing yardwork. (indirect object)
\nMarla<\/span> always likes to prepare herself<\/span> early for meetings. (object of infinitive phrase)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By comparison, consider the same sentences if we use object pronouns in place of reflexive pronouns:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Karl<\/span> will give him<\/span>\u00a0the day off from doing yardwork.
\nMarla<\/span> always likes to prepare her<\/span>\u00a0early for meetings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this pair of sentences, we can only deduce that Karl and Marla are performing an action on or for someone other than themselves. To specify that they are the recipients of the action, we need the reflexive pronouns himself\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0herself<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Let’s also compare how a reflexive pronoun differs from a pronoun that is not reflexive:<\/p>\n

Marla<\/span> said that the scarf is hers<\/span>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this sentence, the personal pronoun hers<\/em>, a possessive pronoun, does not identify itself as being the same as the subject of the independent clause, Marla<\/em>. The antecedent of hers <\/em>is the subject of the dependent clause, scarf.<\/em><\/p>\n

Reflexive pronouns are also used to rename a noun to emphasize it:<\/p>\n

Karl will finish the yardwork himself<\/span>.
\n<\/em>The Singhs themselves<\/span> are taking care of the wedding arrangements.\u00a0<\/i>(or\u00a0The Singhs are taking care of the wedding arrangements themselves<\/span><\/em>.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In these sentences, the reflexive pronoun (himself, themselves<\/em>) does not serve to clearly identify that the subject and the object are the same; rather it emphasizes the noun preceding it by referring (reflexing back) to it. In this context, the reflexive pronoun functions as an intensifier (intensive pronoun). Readers can still understand each sentence without it.<\/p>\n

Karl will finish the yardwork.
\nThe Singhs are taking care of the wedding arrangements.\u00a0<\/i><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reflexive Pronoun: Object<\/h2>\n

You may sometimes hear reflexive pronouns used as objects differently in informal or colloquial speech. For example, someone might say something such as \u201cPlease give it to John or myself\u201d or “Split the change between you and ourselves.”<\/p>\n

Understanding these contexts are informal, we should still ask ourselves whether such use is grammatical. To determine this, we will keep in mind that reflexive pronouns should be used only when they refer back to another word in the sentence to either rename or intensify it.<\/p>\n

In “Please give it to John or myself” and “Split the change between you and ourselves,” neither\u00a0myself\u00a0<\/em>nor\u00a0ourselves<\/em> refers to or emphasizes a previous word. The words are both in the objective case, as both are objects of a prepositional phrase. The correct grammar would thus be “Please give it to John or me” and “Split the change between you and us.”<\/p>\n

Reflexive Pronoun: Subject<\/h2>\n

Reflexive pronouns can be part of subject pronouns.<\/p>\n

Example
\n<\/strong><\/em>I<\/span> myself<\/span> don’t believe one word of the story.
\n(Here the reflexive is an emphatic pronoun repeating the subject\u2014it’s a non-punctuated appositive, which renames, restates, or explains the word or words it refers to.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reflexive pronouns should not replace the subject pronouns themselves.<\/p>\n

Example
\n<\/strong><\/em>My brother and myself<\/span> did it.
\n(Here, myself\u00a0<\/em>is not sufficient to stand alone as a subject pronoun; it can only repeat or rename a proper subject pronoun. A grammatically accurate revision would be either\u00a0My brother and I did it<\/em> or\u00a0My brother and I myself did it.<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

English includes several types of pronouns, such as personal, demonstrative<\/a>, interrogative, relative, indefinite, possessive, and intensive pronouns. In this review, we’ve examined what reflexive pronouns are.<\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/h2>\n

Select the correct sentence.<\/p>\n

1A. Please call either Juanita or myself when you get this message.
\n1B. Please call either Juanita or me when you get this message.<\/p>\n

2A. The chief of staff and myself want to thank you for your hard work.
\n2B. The chief of staff and I want to thank you for your hard work.<\/p>\n

3A. Since we each have a job, we are able to support ourselves.
\n3B. Since we each have a job, we are able to support us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/h3>\n

1A. Please call either Juanita or myself when you get this message.
\n1B. Please call either Juanita or me when you get this message. (Correct)<\/p>\n

2A. The chief of staff and myself want to thank you for your hard work.
\n2B. The chief of staff and I want to thank you for your hard work. (Correct)<\/p>\n

3A. Since we each have a job, we are able to support ourselves. (Correct)
\n3B. Since we each have a job, we are able to support us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reflexive pronoun is one that refers back to itself: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. It is used when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same. It can act as either an object or an indirect object. Examples Karl will give himself the day off from doing yardwork. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-pronouns"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5595,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions\/5595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}