Reflexive Pronouns Flashcards
The reflexive pronouns
myself \ yourself \ himself \ herself \ itself \ ourselves \ yourselves \ themselves
Same subject and object
The reflexive pronouns are normally used when the subject and the object are the same person
She cut ___ chopping the onions
She cut herself chopping the onions
We really enjoyed ___ at the party
We really enjoyed ourselves at the party
Talking to ___ is not necessarily a sign of madness
Talking to oneself is not necessarily a sign of madness
After preposition
We can use reflexive pronouns after most prepositions if they refer back to the subject
He should be really proud of ___
He should be really proud of himself
With the 3-D printer and this scanner \ you can print a small version of ___
With the 3-D printer and this scanner \you can print a small version of yourself
To emphasize who did the action
We also use a reflexive pronoun to emphasise that the subject does the action and nobody else \ In this sense we can use the reflexive at the end of the sentence or after the subject
I will talk to Anna ___
I will talk to Anna myself
I think you should do it ___ instead of having it done
I think you should do it yourself instead of having it done
Paul ___ designed everything
Paul himself designed everything
Verbs with NO reflexive pronoun
Students of English often make mistakes when they use some verbs which are used reflexively in their language but not in English \ Some of these verbs are concentrate \ dress \ shave \ wash \ relax \ hurry \ or open
The first thing I do is wash \ shave \ and dress ___
The first thing I do is wash \ shave \and dress
When I arrive home \ I only want to relax ___ on the sofa
When I arrive home \ I only want to relax on the sofa
Please hurry ___ \ or we’ll be late
Please hurry \ or we’ll be late
The door opened ___ \ and everybody got in
The door opened \ and everybody got in
By myself \ on my own
We can say by myself \ by yourself \ etc \ to mean alone \ without anybody else \ or without anybody’s help
My son doesn’t like to be by ___ \ he always wants us around
My son doesn’t like to be by himself \ he always wants us around
She raised her four children by ___
She raised her four children by herself
I was ___ all morning
I was on my own all morning
She did it ___
She did it on her own
Reciprocal pronouns
We use each other or one another when person A does something to person B and person B does something to person A
When the twins found ___ \ they had been living apart for more than ten years
When the twins found each other \ they had been living apart for more than ten years
