Reflexive pronouns
myself, yourself, himself...
A reflexive pronoun refers back to the subject of the sentence — the person or thing doing the action. We use reflexive pronouns when the subject and the object are the same person or thing. The eight reflexive pronouns are: myself (I), yourself (you, singular), himself (he), herself (she), itself (it), ourselves (we), yourselves (you, plural), and themselves (they). The key rule is that the reflexive must match the subject: if the subject is 'she', you must use 'herself', not 'himself' or 'yourself'. Reflexive pronouns can also appear after 'by' to mean 'alone' or 'without help': 'She cooked by herself' means she cooked without anyone helping her. We do NOT use reflexive pronouns simply to emphasise 'me' instead of an object pronoun — 'She called me' is correct, not 'She called myself'. For example: Tom fell off his bike and hurt himself — 'himself' refers back to Tom, the subject.
Rules
- 1Use a reflexive pronoun when the subject and object of the sentence are the same person or thing (She cut herself).
- 2Match the reflexive to the subject: I→myself, you (sg)→yourself, he→himself, she→herself, it→itself, we→ourselves, you (pl)→yourselves, they→themselves.
- 3By + reflexive pronoun means 'alone' or 'without help' (He did his homework by himself).
- 4Do NOT use a reflexive pronoun when the subject and object are different people (She helped me, NOT She helped myself).
- 5Reflexive pronouns are never used as the subject of a verb (Myself went — WRONG; I went — CORRECT).
Practice
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