What are reflexive and Emphatic Pronouns?

Reflexive pronouns are the pronouns that show that the activity of the subject reflects upon the practitioner. Whenever reflexive pronouns are used just after the noun to stress or emphasise the noun, they are called emphatic pronouns. Emphatic pronouns are used to stress the subject. Since the subject can be a noun or a pronoun they are otherwise called Intensive Pronouns. Emphatics pronouns are only reflexive pronouns with a shift of placement. These are likewise framed by adding – self for singular or – selves for plural towards the finish of specific individual pronouns. They rely upon the number and orientation of the gender given.

Explain with examples some of the Emphatic Pronouns.

Some of the emphatic pronouns which we often use are-

Emphatic Pronoun	Sentence
Herself	She herself travelled back to the college.
Ourselve	We ourselves only made food with home ingredients.
Myself	I myself completed the work all alone.
itself	The box moved by itself on the table
himself	He himself should understand the problem
themselve	The group themselves asked for the clarification
ownself	For your ownself I am suggesting you to do the work

Difference between the reflexive pronoun and the emphatic pronoun

The main difference lies in how they are utilised in the sentences. Some of the notable differences between both pronouns are as follow-

1. A pronoun is a reflexive one assuming the activity of the subject reflects upon the practitioner while emphatic pronouns, then again, are utilised to simply focus upon  the activity of the subject.
2. An emphatic pronoun can be taken out from the sentence and the central significance  of the sentences would not be hampered whereas if the reflexive pronoun is removed or taken out of the sentence then it would fail to make any sense.
3. If there is a shift of the emphatic pronoun in the sentence to any other context, the meaning of the sentence remains the same while if the same happens with the reflexive pronoun then the entire meaning gets changed.
4. A reflexive pronoun can never become the main subject of the sentence whereas the emphatic pronoun can become the subject of the sentence as it is talking about the noun
5. Example -she talks to herself while sleeping -Reflexive Pronoun

The city itself is not very safe- Emphatic Pronoun Usage of emphatic pronouns and reflexive pronouns in English idioms. There are several idioms in the English language where these emphatic pronouns and reflexive pronouns are used. For example- Behave yourself We can see that “yourself” here is the pronoun which can be also used in the sentences like the teacher saying “ Behave yourself Rita.”

What motive do the emphatic pronouns have ?

The primary motive of the emphatic pronouns is to stress the importance of nouns or pronouns in a sentence.

Conclusion

Pronouns are the words that are used and replaced by the noun every time while getting repeated in the sentence. There are various kinds of pronouns that are differentiated on the basis of different classifications. Classification on the basis of personal pronouns are of two types. They are reflexive pronouns and emphatic pronouns. Both are very similar in nature when we observe the usage of words. The context in which the words are used matters as well. That is why they function very differently even though the words are the same. Reflexive pronoun refers back to the main subject who is performing the activity whereas in case of emphatic pronoun, it emphasises the subject which is mentioned in the sentence.