

To memorize the reflexive pronouns and their purposes, try singing the following to the tune of “Three Blind Mice”: Another use of the reflexive is to indicate that the members of a plural subject do something to each other (this is called “reciprocity”). The closest equivalent in English would be to use “myself,” “yourself,” “himself,” “herself,” “ourselves,” or “themselves” after a verb. A reflexive pronoun is used when the subject of the sentence is both the agent of and the recipient of the action of the verb.

The one time that it is not necessary to decide whether the pronoun is replacing a direct object or an indirect object is when a verb is reflexive. Forming the Past Subjunctive: Verb Rules.Past Subjunctive and Sequence of Tenses.Passive Voice Conjunctions Sentence Variations.Present Subjunctive: Truly Irregular Verbs.Stem‐Changers in the Present Subjunctive.Verbs with Spelling Changes in the Preterit.Stem‐Changing Verbs in the Present Tense.Interrogative Pronouns (Question Words).The queen still bought the dog regardless of whether the intensive pronoun is in the sentence or not. If the intensive pronoun is removed, the meaning doesn't change: Notice how the meaning changes when we remove the reflexive pronoun:ĭid the queen buy the dog for herself, or did she buy it for someone else? Without the reflexive pronoun, there's no way to know for sure. The intensive pronoun herself merely emphasizes the fact that the queen (not someone else) was the one who bought the dog. She is both completing and receiving the action in the sentence. Look at the following comparison to understand the difference. The same is not true of reflexive pronouns, which do cause a change in meaning when removed from a sentence. After all, she's not just anybody-she's the queen!īecause intensive pronouns are used only for emphasis, they can be removed from a sentence without affecting its meaning. Using an intensive pronoun tells the reader (or listener) that it's a big deal that the queen gave the award. The queen gave the knight the award herself. The queen herself gave the knight the award. Intensive pronouns look exactly the same as reflexive pronouns, but they are only used for emphasis. An intensive pronoun emphasizes a preceding noun, which is often (but not always) the noun immediately before the pronoun.
