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Questions tagged [reflexives]

Questions about reflexive verbs and pronouns

Might refer to either:

Reflexive verbs

A verb whose direct object is the same as its subject, for example, "I wash myself". This includes reciprocal, autocausative, anticausative, intransitive, impersonal, or inherent verb forms and conjugations. (details on the wiki link above)

Reflexive pronouns

A noun phrase that obligatorily gets its meaning from another noun phrase in the sentence.

Singular: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
Plural: ourselves, yourselves, themselves

129 questions
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Who do we keep an air of mystery about?

This is a followup to my post on meta.SE. The filler text: Apparently, this user prefers to keep an air of mystery about them. sounds odd to my ear. I understand that "them" is being used as a singular, third-person gender neutral pronoun, but I…
Patrick Collins
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6
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1 answer

Reflexive verbs

This question asks whether some verbs are used only with a reflexive pronouns as their object. The accepted answer lists "absent", "avail", "pride", and "content". If you say "He saw himself in the mirror.", that's plainly not an example, since one…
Michael Hardy
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4
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"Reflexive only" verbs

English can use a lot of verbs in a reflexive context. Even ones that usually are used intransitively. I laugh myself silly. However, it seems like there are very few – perhaps no – verbs that ONLY work in a reflexive context. Are there any?
Emanuel
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3
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"X is me" or "X is myself"

Which is correct? The English Stack Exchange user with the ID of 5481 is me. The English Stack Exchange user with the ID of 5481 is myself.
Victor
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4 answers

Missing reflexive when there's a preposition

English does distinguish between a regular pronoun and a self referential one in all persons. However, it seems like the reflexive form isn't always needed. She told him good bye and shut the door behind her. I (not a native speaker) feel like…
Emanuel
  • 1,507
2
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2 answers

I wonder whether it should be a just pronoun or a reflexive one

Turkey’s Justice and Development (AK) party won national elections by a surprisingly large margin, taking 317 of 550 seats in parliament and giving it back the majority it lost in previous elections in June. This is the first part of one piece…
anotherworld
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1
vote
3 answers

Using "himself" in a sentence

In a book, I found this sentence. Though dead for three years, the ghost of this scoundrel threatened greater harm to Sherlock Holmes than Professor Moriarty himself had done. In this sentence, is "himself" compulsory? Does the meaning change if it…
Supun Kavinda
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When to use I Or Myself as the object of the sentence

Which is correct? "I made lunch for my wife and I" -or- "I made lunch for my wife and myself" --I hear both of them used.
Shlomo Green
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0
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2 answers

'a trip for my wife and self'

Can one use 'self' as substitute for 'myself' in 'a trip for my wife and self'? I have noticed that using 'myself' there raises other grammatical issues strictly related with the so_called "Toff's error", which I want to avoid!
Elberich Schneider
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0
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Between youself and I

I understand that myself and related pronouns are reflexive. I do not think the sentence: "As a result of previous correspondence between you and me," sounds correct. I would like to say "As a result of previous correspondence between yourself and…
F. Underwood
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0
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1 answer

You vs. Yourself?

If a child points at a necklace his classmate is making, and he wonders if the classmate is making it for herself or for someone else, which of the following is more appropriate? "Is this for you?" or "Is this for yourself?"
Kiana L
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Why is it "take something with you" and not "take something with yourself"?

Why are reflexive pronouns not used in the following examples? The sentences numbered 1 are what people say, but the sentences numbered 2 are what I understand should be be used, as the subjects of the sentences are doing some actions on themselves.…
Mehrdad
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talking about a schizophrenic!

Theoretically, could this sentence be correct when talking about a person with schizophrenia? "he/she is talking to each other" I suppose 'herself' or 'himself' would be the better word to use instead of 'each other'. Just a thought.
MattyBeales
  • 257