Virtuous English AcademyReflexive Pronouns in English (A2)
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Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves) are used when the subject and the object are the same person. This lesson also covers each other, by myself and the verbs that never take one.
English has three pronoun sets you already know — subject (I, she, they), object (me, her, them) and possessive (my, her, their). Reflexive pronouns are the fourth, and they exist for one situation: the subject and the object of the verb are the same person. I cut myself is not a stylistic choice; it is the only correct way to say it, because I cut me is not English.
The forms are regular enough to learn in a single sitting. Singular ends in -self and plural ends in -selves, and the base is the possessive for the first and second person (myself, yourself, ourselves, yourselves) and the object pronoun for the third (himself, herself, itself, themselves). Hisself and theirselves feel logical, and they are the two forms to avoid, because neither exists.
Two more uses come free with the same words. By myself means alone or without help, and it is far more common in speech than the reflexive proper. And a reflexive placed at the end of a clause adds emphasis: I painted the kitchen myself says nobody helped. The one genuine difficulty at A2 is knowing which verbs do not take a reflexive at all — English says I feel tired and I got dressed where many other languages use a reflexive, and that interference is the source of most errors.
How to form Reflexive Pronouns
| Subject | Object | Reflexive | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | me | myself | I made myself a coffee. |
| you (one person) | you | yourself | Did you hurt yourself? |
| he | him | himself | He introduced himself to the class. |
| she | her | herself | She taught herself Spanish. |
| it | it | itself | The door closed itself. |
| we | us | ourselves | We enjoyed ourselves enormously. |
| you (more than one) | you | yourselves | Please help yourselves to fruit. |
| they | them | themselves | They blamed themselves for the delay. |
Reflexive Pronouns: the key rules
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Use a reflexive pronoun when the subject and the object are the same person.
She cut herself. I taught myself to cook.
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The set follows the possessive: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
Help yourselves to the sandwiches.
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Two people doing the same thing to one another takes each other, not a reflexive.
They emailed each other all week.
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By + reflexive means alone or without help.
He travelled around Georgia by himself.
When to use Reflexive Pronouns
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The subject acts on the subject
The core use, and the only one where the reflexive is grammatically compulsory.
He burnt himself on the oven door.
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Alone or unaided — by + reflexive
Far commoner in conversation than the reflexive proper, and always with by.
She walked home by herself after the concert.
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Emphasis at the end of a clause
Adds the meaning nobody else did it, and can be removed without breaking the sentence.
The manager apologised to me herself.
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Mutual action — each other
Two or more people doing something to one another, which a reflexive cannot express.
The two teams congratulated each other after the match.
themselves vs. each other
This pair produces the single funniest error in A2 English, because both sentences are grammatical and only one means what the speaker intended. The difference is the direction of the action.
themselves — each person acts on that same person
Three people, three separate actions, each one turned inward.
The children dried themselves. (Each child dried their own body.)
each other — the action goes between them
The action crosses from one person to another and back.
The children dried each other. (They dried one another's hair and backs.)
Reflexive Pronouns in example sentences
- I taught myself to play the guitar.Subject and object are the same person, so the reflexive is required.
- Be careful with that knife — you'll cut yourself.Singular you takes yourself, not yourselves.
- Help yourselves, everyone.Addressing more than one person, so the plural form is needed.
- The cat washed itself in the sunshine.Animals and objects take itself.
- We booked the tickets ourselves.Emphatic use — it means we did not use an agency.
- They wrote to each other for ten years.Mutual, not reflexive: the letters travelled between them.
- He lives by himself in a flat near the station.By + reflexive meaning alone.
- I feel much better today.No reflexive: feel is one of the verbs English never reflexes.
Reflexive Pronouns in a real conversation
Watch for one emphatic use, one by + reflexive, and one place where a reflexive would be wrong.
Lena:Did somebody help you move the piano?
Tomas:No, I did it by myself. I nearly hurt myself, actually.
Lena:You should be more careful. How do you feel now?
Tomas:Fine. My neighbours and I usually help each other with big things.
Lena:Then why didn't you ask them this time?
Tomas:They were away. I told myself it would be easy. It wasn't.
Common mistakes (and how to fix them)
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I feel myself tired today.
I feel tired today.
Feel, relax, concentrate, wash and dress do not take a reflexive pronoun in English, even though they do in many other languages.
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Ali and Deniz looked at themselves and laughed.
Ali and Deniz looked at each other and laughed.
Themselves means each one looked in a mirror; each other means they looked at one another.
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They enjoyed theirselves at the concert.
They enjoyed themselves at the concert.
Theirselves and hisself are not English words — the plural forms are ourselves, yourselves and themselves.
Practise Reflexive Pronouns today
Half of this topic is knowing when NOT to use a reflexive, so two of the four steps below train exactly that.
- Write eight sentences about your week, using a different reflexive pronoun in each.
- Rewrite four of them with by + reflexive and check the meaning changes to alone.
- Correct these: I feel myself happy. — They looked at themselves and smiled at one another. — He hurt hisself.
- Describe one thing you did with help and one thing you did alone, using each other in the first and by myself in the second.
Reflexive Pronouns: frequently asked questions
Why is I feel myself tired wrong?
Because feel in this sense is not an action you do to yourself; it describes a state. English treats feel, relax, concentrate, remember, meet, hurry and complain as ordinary intransitive verbs, so nothing follows them. Many languages — Spanish, French, Russian, Turkish and German among them — mark exactly these verbs as reflexive, which is why the error is so consistent and so hard to hear. Say I feel tired, I'm relaxing, I need to concentrate.
Do I say wash myself or just wash?
For the everyday routine, just wash: I washed and got dressed. English drops the reflexive with verbs of personal care — wash, shave, dress, change — unless there is a reason to stress the effort or the difficulty, as with a small child or an injured person: He can wash himself now. The reflexive is not wrong there; it simply adds meaning you usually do not need.
When do I use ourselves and when each other?
Ask which way the action points. If each person in the group performs the action on their own body or on their own behalf, use ourselves or themselves: We introduced ourselves to the group. If the action goes from one person to another, use each other: We introduced each other to the group, which means I introduced you and you introduced me. One another means the same as each other and is a little more formal.
Where does the emphatic reflexive go in the sentence?
Either straight after the noun it emphasises — the director himself replied — or at the end of the clause: the director replied himself. Both are correct, and the end position is commoner in speech. It is always removable: take it out and the sentence still works, which is the quickest test for telling an emphatic reflexive from a compulsory one. In I cut myself the pronoun cannot be removed, so it is not emphatic.