Mixed Review — Reflexive, Emphatic, By Myself, Each Other
Test everything: reflexive vs each other, herself vs by herself vs herself emphatic, impersonal pronouns, and multi-error text-correction. B1–B2 challenge exercises.
Mixed Review: Reflexive Pronouns in Context
The most challenging reflexive pronoun exercises require learners to distinguish between uses that superficially look similar: themselves (each person acts on themselves) vs each other (A acts on B and B acts on A); reflexive object ('She introduced herself') vs mutual action ('They introduced each other'). Corpus research shows that themselves/each other confusion is the single most frequent advanced reflexive error, occurring in roughly 15% of relevant sentences at B2 level. A secondary error cluster involves invariable forms: 'each others' (no apostrophe, no -s) is always wrong — the correct phrase is 'each other' (no possessive -s) or 'each other's' (with apostrophe for the possessive).
Themselves vs Each Other
They looked at each other. (A looked at B; B looked at A)
When the new employees arrived, they introduced themselves. (each said their own name)
The two suspects blamed each other for the crime. (A blamed B; B blamed A)
Each Other's — The Possessive
They congratulated each other on the victory. ✓ (no apostrophe — not possessive)
Common Mistakes
✗ They helped each others with the homework. → ✓ each other. (never 'each others')
✗ They enjoyed theirselves. → ✓ enjoyed themselves.
✗ They congratulated theirselves and shook each others hands. → ✓ themselves … each other's hands.