Business Spotlight Plus – Nr.6 2019

Business Spotlight PLUS

Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns

Grammatik

Remember!
In written
German, each
other and one
another are best
translated as
einander. In
informal spoken
German, uns,
euch and sich are
also used, which
sometimes
leads to
mistakes in
English:
● Wir lieben uns.
/ Wir lieben
einander. =
We love each
other. (not
“We love us”
or “We love
ourselves”)

3. Idiomatically speaking

When reflexive pronouns are used in idiomatic phrases, their meaning

is not immediately clear. Match the idioms in sentences A–E with their

respective meaning (1–5).

A. Help yourselves to cake! There’s enough

for everyone.

B. Behave yourselves , children! I’m not

saying it again.

C. I ’ve not been feeling myself lately. I think

I need a holiday.

D. Don’t be nervous about the interview. Just

be yourself.

E. You don’t want my help? Suit yourself.

4. First person plural

Underline the correct option in each sentence.

A. We blamed us / ourselves / each other for the failure of the contract; we

knew we were both equally responsible.

B. What a crowd! How are we ever going to find us / ourselves / each other?

C. When we woke up, we were astonished to find us / ourselves / each other

in a prison cell.

D. We both attended the conference, but we didn’t have a chance to speak to

us / ourselves / each other.

E. We’ve known us / ourselves / each other ever since kindergarten, and

we’re still great friends.

F. We all really enjoyed us / ourselves / each other at yesterday’s match

between Liverpool and Tottenham.

G. Have a nice evening, Tom! We’ll see us / ourselves / each other on Friday.

H. We’re looking for someone to show us / ourselves / each other the way to

the warehouse.

1. be well mannered


2. behave naturally


3. do whatever you want


4. feel unwell


5. take as much as you
   want

A– ; B– ; C– ; D– ; E–

Time to
leave: he has
to pack his
things
himself

A