Hey, we’ve been talking about pronouns a lot recently. Today we’re going to discuss yet another group of pronouns, reflexive pronouns, which, in spite of being a distinct group of pronouns, are closely related to personal pronouns in objective case.
So, what they have in common with personal pronouns in objective case is that they, too, are used only in objective case. But before we start talking about reflexive pronouns, let’s recap on personal pronouns in objective case. Have a look at the following example:
– Hey, are you talking to me?
– No, I’m not talking to you.
In the question the subject is YOU and the object is ME. So, the subject and the object refer to two distinct entities, or persons in this case.
In the answer the subject is I and the object is YOU. Again, the subject and the object are two different entities.
But sometimes the subject and the object refer to the same entity. Have a look:
– So, who are you talking to?
– I’m talking to myself.
Here, the subject and the object refer to the same person. This is where reflexive pronouns are used. So, we use reflexive pronouns if the subject performs an action on themselves.
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The Forms of Reflexive Pronouns
There are separate forms of reflexive pronouns for each person. There are even distinct forms for the second person singular and plural, which isn’t the case with any other types of pronouns, maybe except intensive pronouns that I’m going to cover in one of my next articles.
Singular Forms of Reflexive Pronouns
Anyway, here are the forms in singular:
| 1st person | myself |
| 2nd person | yourself |
| 3rd person masculine gender | himself |
| 3rd person feminine gender | herself |
| 3rd person neuter gender | itself |
Here are some examples:
What am I doing here? I’m just asking myself.
Hey, girl, you’re not enjoying yourself, right?
The singer just hid himself behind a cloud of artificial smoke.
Monica doesn’t love anybody. She only loves herself.
The microphone is broken. We must do something about it because it’s not going to repair itself.
There’s also a gender-neuter form oneself, used if the subject is expressed by the indefinite pronoun one. Here’s an example:
One shouldn’t keep everything to oneself. This is why we share our music with you, guys.
Plural Forms of Reflexive Pronouns
And here are the forms in plural:
| 1st person | ourselves |
| 2nd person | yourselves |
| 3rd person | themselves |
And, again, some examples:
– It’s so loud here. We can’t hear ourselves.
– You don’t have to hear yourselves. What matters is that you can hear us.
– Just wondering… Can the singers hear themselves on the stage? Or do they only hear the crowd?
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