Reflexive and Emphatic Pronoun with Examples

Reflexive pronouns:

When the subject and the object are the same person or thing, especially after verbs, reflexive pronouns will be used. It can also be used to emphasize the subject or object more.

The reflexive pronouns are always formed by adding ‘self ‘or ‘selves’ to the personal pronouns.

We get compound personal pronouns, whenever ‘self’ is added to pronounce my, your, him, her, it, and on the other hand ‘selves’ to pronounce our, your, them.

So, reflexive pronouns are also known as compound personal pronouns.

For Example: He protected himself from the flood.
In this sentence, himself is the reflexive pronoun for the subject ‘He’.

Ways in which Reflexive Pronouns can be used:

• When the action is done by the subject, it is imitated back upon the subject.

For example: The girl washed himself.

The subject girl performs the act of washing his own body. So, the action is imitated back upon the subject.

• When the subject/object of the verb are the same person or thing.

For example: Raja bought himself a watch.

Raja is the subject of the verb. But at the same time, he is also the object of the verb.  They are used with prepositions after verbs, to clarify which person or thing we are speaking about.

For example: She was dancing by herself.

The reflexive pronoun herself is used after dancing by. This is to simplify that the girl was dancing alone and not with anyone else.

Some more Examples:

• I nourished myself with the apples.
• You unintentionally cut yourself last Tuesday.
• We guilt ourselves for the coincidence.
• Josh helped himself to the food.
• Ali read to himself in the evening.
• They bought themselves a beautiful house.

 

Emphatic Pronouns:

It is a pronoun that is used to put emphasis on the subject or object of a sentence.

For example: They saw the Queen herself.

The word herself emphasizes the noun, Queen. Therefore, herself is the emphatic pronoun for the object Queen.

How to identify emphatic pronouns?

A sentence will always make complete sense, even without an emphatic pronoun.

For example:

• He himself will take the car.

The emphatic pronoun himself emphasizes the subject ‘He’.

If we remove the emphatic pronoun himself, then the sentence will be:

• He will take the car.

You can see that the sentence still makes complete sense.

Some more Examples:

• I will draw the map myself.
• We will visit the museum ourselves.
• You yourself will take us on a trip.
• We saw the Chief himself.
• She herself told us the situation.
• The city itself receives much rainfall.
• They themselves desire to stay at a hostel.

 

Table of reflexive and emphatic pronouns:

You will see that the form of emphatic and the reflexive pronoun is the same. But emphatic pronouns are different in meanings from reflexive pronouns.

 

SUBJECT	Type	REFLEXIVE/EMPHATIC PRONOUNS
I	1st person singular	Myself
You	2nd person singular	Yourself
He	3rd person singular	Himself
She	3rd person singular	Herself
It	3rd person singular	Itself
We	1st person plural	Ourselves
You	2nd person plural	Yourselves
They	3rd person plural	Themselves

 

 

Reflexive Vs. Emphatic pronouns:

• Reflexive pronouns form the subject and indirect object of the verb as well, while emphatic pronouns merely emphasized the noun.
• Reflexive pronouns are used as an object while emphatic pronouns are not used as an object.
• Reflexive pronouns subjects & objects are the same persons or things whereas emphatic pronouns subjects & objects are not the same persons or things.

Difference between Reflexive and Emphatic Pronouns – Expanded

Reflexive Pronouns	Emphatic Pronouns
Reflexive pronouns form the subject and the indirect object of the verb.	Emphatic pronouns merely emphasized the noun.
Reflexive pronouns may use as an object.	Emphatic Pronouns are never used as objects.
In reflexive pronouns, Subjects & Objects are the same persons or things.	In Emphatic pronouns, Subjects & Objects are not the same persons or things.
The subject’s action turns back on it.	The subject’s action does not turn back on it.
Examples	Examples
I wrote myself the letter.	I myself wrote the letter.
I treated myself to ice cream.	I myself purchased the ice cream.
They burnt themselves while making food.	You yourself can tell them about the incident.