Reflexive Basics — Myself, Yourself, Themselves — English Grammar Exercises
She cut herself. He taught himself. They say… 60 exercises on reflexive pronouns, emphasis, by myself, and impersonal you/they/one.
Reflexive Pronoun Basics: Building the Eight Forms
The starting point for reflexive pronouns is the rule of co-reference: use a reflexive when the subject and the object of a verb refer to the same person. 'She looked at herself in the mirror' — the looker and the looked-at are the same. This is the most common use, and the one where form errors (hisself, theirselves) are most damaging. Cambridge Learner Corpus data shows that form errors account for roughly 30% of all reflexive mistakes at B1 level, almost always involving the third-person forms built incorrectly from possessive pronouns rather than object pronouns.
Forming the Reflexive: Object Pronoun + -self/-selves
you + self → yourself / you + selves → yourselves
him + self → himself (not hisself)
her + self → herself
it + self → itself
us + selves → ourselves
them + selves → themselves (not theirselves)
Core Reflexive Verbs
Some verbs commonly appear with a reflexive object because the action typically affects the actor:
Be careful — you'll hurt yourself!
We really enjoyed ourselves at the party.
He taught himself to play guitar.
Please help yourselves to more food.
Common Mistakes
✗ She accidentally cut her while cooking. → ✓ cut herself. (same person = reflexive)
Frequently Asked Questions
What are reflexive pronouns in English and when do you use them?
English reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. You use them when the subject and object of a verb refer to the same person: 'She burned herself while cooking' (subject = she, object = she). They also appear in fixed verb phrases such as 'enjoy yourself', 'help yourself', and 'teach yourself'. A key point for Russian speakers: many verbs that are reflexive in Russian — feel, relax, concentrate, meet, worry — take no reflexive pronoun in English.
What is the difference between a reflexive and an emphatic use of myself/yourself?
In reflexive use, the pronoun is the object of the verb: 'She hurt herself.' Remove it and the sentence is incomplete or changes meaning. In emphatic use, the pronoun stresses that someone did something personally without help: 'The President himself opened the ceremony.' It can be removed without breaking the grammar — the emphasis is simply lost. Emphatic pronouns appear directly after the noun ('The chef himself served us') or at the end of a clause ('I painted the room myself').
What does 'by myself' mean, and how is it different from 'myself'?
'By + reflexive pronoun' means alone or without help: 'I prefer to study by myself', 'She completed the task by herself'. It is equivalent to 'on my own / on her own'. Without 'by', the reflexive is either a verb object ('I taught myself') or an emphatic intensifier ('I did it myself'). A common error is using an object pronoun after 'by': 'by her' instead of 'by herself' — 'by' always requires the reflexive form.
When do you use impersonal 'you', 'they', or 'one' in English?
Impersonal 'you' makes general statements that apply to anyone: 'You can see the mountains from here on a clear day.' It is the most natural choice in everyday speech. Impersonal 'they' refers to authorities or unnamed people in general: 'They say this restaurant is excellent'; 'They're building a new school nearby.' Formal 'one' appears in written or elevated registers: 'One should consider all the options.' In everyday English, 'one' often sounds unnatural — prefer 'you' for advice and 'they' for what people say or do.