When you interact with yourself, you spawn a special case of pronoun: the reflexive pronoun. Reflexive pronouns are interesting because they serve so many functions beyond what you’d expect from other, dryer pronouns. For instance, reflexive pronouns can add emphasis and alter connotations. Because they land in unique, tricky places in sentences, you'll also find helpful a chart, an explanation of conjugations, and an explanation of the difference between intensive and reflexive pronouns.
Reflexive Pronouns in English
In English, every pronoun has a reflexive case.
The case of a word changes based on its role in the sentence (e.g., whether it acts, is acted upon, or possesses something).
A reflexive pronoun (“myself”) acts as an object, just like an accusative pronoun (“me”), but a reflexive pronoun always refers back to the subject of a clause or sentence. It indicates an action of or on oneself.
Here's a sentence that uses a reflexive pronoun.
Here, “myself” is the reflexive pronoun referring back to “I.” It is the direct object following the verb “love.”
In English, reflexive pronouns have many uses. Before getting into the nitty-gritty, here’s a list of all the reflexive pronouns.
Fig. 1 - Reflexive pronouns express unique relationships with ourselves.
Reflexive Pronouns Chart
As mentioned before, every English pronoun has a reflexive form, so here is a chart of them all.
| Pronoun | Reflexive Pronoun |
First-person singular | I | Myself |
First-person plural | We | Ourselves |
Second-person singular | You | Yourself |
Second-person plural | You | Yourselves |
Third-person singular | He, She, They (epicene), It | Himself, Herself, Themself, Itself |
Third-person plural | They | Themselves |
Indefinite singular | One | Oneself |
Refer back to this chart for any questions about reflexive pronouns. There are just ten!
Reflexive Pronoun Conjugation
Unlike many languages, English doesn’t require special conjugations for reflexive verbs.
In English, a reflexive verb is simply a verb where the direct object is a reflexive pronoun.
Here are a few examples:
I love myself.
You threw yourself at him.
She patted herself on the back.
The verb in all of these instances is transitive.
Transitive verbs take a direct object.
On the other hand, intransitive verbs don’t take a direct object. For example, “to sit” cannot take a direct object. You can, however, modify them with prepositional phrases. “She sat on the bench.”
Most uses of reflexive verbs don’t approach anything even arguably near a “verb conjugation.”
Here is a reflexive pronoun being used alongside another direct object.
I love myself and my sister.
Here, "my sister" is a second direct object, joined to "myself" using the common coordinating conjunction "and." "Myself" refers back to "I" while "my sister" (not previously introduced) refers to "I."
Next, have a look at all the ways you can use reflexive pronouns outside of the above, simple “verb + direct object” relationship.
A Possible Error: Sometimes, you might want to appear more formal and write a sentence like this:
- “Should you need something, speak to Anne or myself.”
This, however, is incorrect. If you think about it, the implied subject of the imperative clause “speak to Anne or myself” is “you.” Therefore, “myself” is inappropriate, as there is no “I” it refers back to. You will often run across this kind of error in imperative sentences (which give commands) because the subject isn’t typically present, and thus writers have fewer ways to notice the inaccuracy.
Also don't do this!
- "John and myself love flowers."
Here, the subject should be "I." Again, "myself" needs to refer back to something.
Sentences With Reflexive Pronouns
So, what sort of sentences use reflexive pronouns? As an analytic language, English has reflexive pronouns in many places to communicate subtle meanings.
An analytic language uses word order, auxiliary verbs, and prepositions to indicate what is happening in a sentence.
Here are some of those uses.
Reflexive Pronouns Using Prepositions
You can use reflexive pronouns with prepositions.
Prepositions place something somewhere in terms of time, space, direction, order, or place.
Some common examples include: at, by, before, between, down, in, of, on, until, and up.
You can use reflexive pronouns as the object of a preposition referring back to the subject.
She (subject) bought (verb) the rug (direct object) for (preposition) herself (reflexive pronoun).
Fig. 2 - In the above example, the rug is the direct object that finds its home with the prepositional phrase, "for herself."
Reflexive Pronouns Using Indirect Objects
It’s easy to confuse the object of a preposition and an indirect object because both have a direct object and that direct object is transferred to another noun. However, an indirect object receives the direct object without any obstructions like particles or prepositions. It also precedes the direct object.
This is different from the object of a preposition. This is how you’d phrase that same sentence, only using the object of a preposition:
I wrote a letter to myself.
Both of these examples show how you can use reflexive pronouns in such constructions. Just don’t confuse them!
Phrasal Verbs vs. Objects of Prepositions: Consider the sentence, “I talk to myself.” Here, “to” is a particle and not a preposition. A particle links to a verb while a preposition links to a noun. In “I talk to myself,” “to” links to “talk.” In the previous example “I wrote a letter to myself,” the “to” is linked to the pronoun “myself.”
In the sentence, “I talk to myself,” “talk to” is considered a phrasal verb (a verb consisting of more than one word), and “myself” is considered the direct object.
Reflexive Pronouns for New Meanings
This one is refreshingly non-grammatical. Sometimes, reflexive pronouns can put a spin on the meaning of a verb. Take for example:
He applied himself to the study of geometry.
This use of “apply” mostly appears in reflexive constructions like this. Another interesting use of reflexive pronouns is in the phrase, “to find oneself.”
At last, after years of study and meditation, John had found himself.
You simply don’t use the verb “found” to mean this without the reflexive pronoun. To "find oneself" is an example of a collocation, which is a group of words frequently found together in English. Some non-reflexive examples include "make the bed" and "quick glance."
A final example of this phenomenon is the phrase “to think oneself.”
Abel thought himself a cook.
The phrase “to think oneself” has the unique connotation of inaccuracy. In other words, when you read the sentence “Abel thought himself a cook,” you probably (and rightly) assumed that Abel isn’t actually much of a cook. This reflexive construction has injected a new meaning into the verb-object-direct object relationship of the verb “to think.”
Reflexive Pronouns for Emphasis or Clarification
Finally, you can use reflexive pronouns for emphasis or clarification. Here’s how you might use a reflexive pronoun for emphasis. Imagine this dialogue:
“I like hockey the best.”
“I prefer baseball myself.”
In the reply, the interlocutor uses “myself” to emphasize their differing opinion. Connotatively, this emphasis is also more polite. It would be much brisker to reply with, “I prefer baseball.”
Each emphatic use of a reflexive pronoun has its own connotation. For example, “She had the pizza herself” is not more polite than “She had the pizza.” In fact, if someone said “She had the pizza herself,” they might be implying that she didn’t share. Thus it might qualify as a slight, whereas “She had the pizza” is more neutral. Ultimately, tone of voice is the greatest contributor to situational connotation.
You can also use the same construction for clarification.
There’s a big difference between “I run the store” and “I run the store myself.” The former simply means that someone runs the store. They’re probably the owner or manager. On the other hand, “I run the store myself” means that this person runs the store without any help whatsoever.
Difference Between Intensive and Reflexive Pronouns
Although intensive and reflexive pronouns used for emphasis serve near-identical functions, they are grammatically distinct. An intensive pronoun directly follows and modifies a noun or pronoun.
On the other hand, a reflexive pronoun refers back to the subject.
She wanted this for herself.
In this example, “for herself” is a prepositional phrase. “Herself” is the object of a preposition. Another common one is "by herself" and similar, such as in the sentence, "He wanted to do that by himself."
There can be small connotative differences between intensive and reflexive pronouns, too. Take these two examples:
I want to do it myself.
I myself want to do it.
Connotatively, the latter use of the intensive pronoun sounds more regal. It sounds like a noble endeavor, a kind of quest for self-improvement. The former use of the reflexive pronoun is more matter-of-fact. It might even sound stand-offish or aggressive, whereas “I myself want to do it” lacks those undertones.
Reflexive Pronouns - Key Takeaways
- A reflexive pronoun (“myself”) acts as an object, just like an accusative pronoun (“me”), but a reflexive pronoun always refers back to the subject of a clause or sentence.
- Among other things, reflexive pronouns can be indirect objects, objects of prepositions, and direct objects for verbs and phrasal verbs.
- The ten reflexive pronouns are myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, themself, itself, themselves, and oneself.
- A reflexive verb is simply a verb where the direct object is a reflexive pronoun. This is the extent you "conjugate" the reflexive in English.
- Reflexive pronouns can add emphasis or clarify. They should not be confused with intensive pronouns, which are similar but have a different grammatical function.
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