Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns

• Reflexive pronouns

• Intensive pronouns

Example: She hurt herself.

Notice the direct OBJECT (herself) is the same person as the subject (she).

• direct objects

• indirect objects

• objects of the preposition

• Reflexive pronouns are NEVER subjects!

• I - myself

• you - yourself/yourselves

• she - herself

• him - himslef

• they - themselves

• it - iself

• we - ourselves

Hisself is NOT a word! It's himself.

Theirselves is NOT a word! It's themselves.

But, intensive pronouns end in this way too, so we have to learn the difference between reflexive and intensive pronouns.

• In many cases, the intensive pronoun is right after the word or pronoun that it is modifying, but not always. Example: She herself made that cake!

• Intensive pronouns can be removed from the sentence without affecting the meaning. If you remove a reflexive pronoun, the meaning is changed. Look at the example above. You could take out herself, and the meaning of the sentence does not change.

• The principal himself gave the award.

• The principal gave the award himself.

• The intensive pronoun himself creates emphasis in this sentence because it tells the reader that it's a big deal that the principal gave the award.

• Alex and myself went to the mall. This is WRONG! It should be Alex and I went to the mall.

• Our teacher gave Demetrius and myself another assignment. This is WRONG! It should be Our teacher gave Demetrius and me another assignment.