Reflexive Case
Reflexive Case | ||
| Singular | Plural |
First Person | myself | ourselves |
Second Person | yourself | yourselves |
Third Person | himself, herself, itself | themselves |
The reflexive pronouns show that the action of the verb affects the person who performs the action:
The old man injured himself in his farm.
I pray for myself always.
He caught the thieves himself.
Did the boys make the dresses themselves?
- Remember you use ‘yourself’ when you are talking to one person but ‘yourselves’ when talking to more than one.
- Ourself, themself , theirselves, hisself are un-English.
Semantics and Reflexive Pronoun
*The students fought themselves.
*We greeted ourselves.
The above expressions are wrong because they do not actually convey the real intention of the speaker. The first asterisked expression means that each of the students faced himself and fought himself. This is madness! Can you see how clumsy it is to explain? Same goes for the second expression. It means individually, the students turned to themselves, greeted and probably responded. Another madness, right?
So, what is the correct expression? Let check reciprocal pronoun in the next lesson.
Educative'
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