Practice Makes Perfect

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronounsreflect back to the subject of a sentence. The

English reflexive pronouns are: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself,

ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. Each one can only be used with

its personal pronoun counterpart when that personal pronoun is

the subject of the sentence:

Personal Reflexive A Sample

Pronoun Pronoun Sentence

I myself I hurt myself again.

you yourself You can do it yourself.

he himself He enjoyed himself.

she herself She helped herself to some candy.

it itself It destroyed itself in a few seconds.

we ourselves We found ourselves in a strange city.

you yourselves You must clean yourselves up before

dinner.

they themselves They accidentally burned

themselves.

If the reflexive pronoun and the personal pronoun are not coun-

terparts, then personal pronouns should be used in the sentence.

Look at these examples:

Counterparts Not Counterparts

I hurt myself again. I hurt him again. I hurt them again.

He enjoyed himself. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed them.

They harmed themselves. They harmed me. They harmed her.

Remember that third-person singular and plural nouns will use the

appropriate third-person singular and plural reflexive pronouns:

Marta bought herself a new car.

The boy cut himself.

The alien creature wounded itself with its own claws.

The men helped themselves to some beer.

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Unit 15

05 (077-098) Units 14-19 11/3/04 1:41 PM Page 83

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