Reflexive Pronouns

The noun is replaced by a word, and that replaced word is called pronoun. They refer to a particular person or thing. Examples are he, she, it, they, we, you, our etc. They behave the same as the noun does. It can be used for both subjects and objects. A pronoun replaces the word or phrases called the antecedent of the pronoun. Using pronouns makes a speech or writing concise, but it should be used properly and definitely. There are different types of pronouns. They are personal pronoun, a reflexive pronoun, possessive pronoun, indefinite pronoun, relative pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, reciprocal pronoun, exclamatory pronoun, distributive pronoun, interrogative pronoun etc. What is a reflexive pronoun? We will learn here.

About it

In Latin, reflexive means reflect, whereas reflexive pronoun reflects on the sentence’s subject. What is the reflex pronoun? The pronoun, which indicates the person who does the action of the verb and the person who receives the action is the same, is called a reflexive pronoun. It does not substitute any noun or pronoun from its place in the sentence. It ends with words of self or selves. Examples are myself, yourself, ourselves, themselves etc. Some reflexive pronoun examples are:

• I can express myself in good English.
• Nan has not a greater enemy than himself.
• If they say you are good, then ask yourself if it would be true. 
• She disguised herself in a man’s clothes.
• The economy is itself a great income.
• No one can disgrace us but ourselves. 
• Did you make these cakes by yourselves? 
• God helps those who help themselves.

A reflexive pronoun can be used as a direct or indirect object. They are divided as singular and plural.

Singular Reflexive Pronouns

Singular reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, itself, himself, herself. For example, I love myself; she did it for herself; he meant it for himself. 

Plural Reflexive Pronouns

Plural reflexive pronouns are yourselves, themselves, ourselves. 

• We tried so hard for ourselves. 
• You always did it for yourselves.
• They did their work properly for themselves. 

They act as an object and are preceded by the verb of a sentence. The subject exerts an action on itself rather than on another subject. When third person plural is used, it is more common. Similar reflexive pronoun examples are, “she hated her” is written as “she hated herself”. They can be used in conjunction with the word “by” to indicate alone. For example, “I cleaned the room by myself”, prem did the homework by himself, She made her cake by herself etc.

Reflexive Pronoun Can Be Used As Direct Object

If the subject and the direct object in a sentence are similar, then the reflective pronoun qualifies to be a direct object. In this example, “Mahesh wants to buy Suresh a big car” is written as “Mahesh wants to buy himself a big car. In this example, Suresh is the receiver of a big car, and in the next phrase, Mahesh is the receiver of a big car; thus, the reflective pronoun himself is used in the sentence.

Reflexive Pronoun Used As A Indirect Object

Reflexive pronouns also act as indirect objects. For example, Ram wakes up his younger brother every morning can be written as ” Ram wakes up himself every morning. To make writing informative, reflective pronouns always play a prominent role, but they should be used properly.

Reflexive pronouns are used after verbs along with prepositions to make it clear which person or thing we are talking about.

Conclusion

Reflexive pronouns are common in everyday language. These pronouns show back or reflect back to the subject of the sentence with clarity. Reflexive pronouns possess a strong tendency to be objects. The fact that using one’s name twice as both the object and subject might seem out of sorts and even rude necessitates the reflexive pronoun. Reflexive pronouns help reduce repetition and makes language usage easy. Instead of saying Himesh bought himself a car, which may sound offensive and incorrect, one will say Himesh bought himself a car. Reflexive pronouns are the pronouns in which they act in a polite way of communication.