Personal, Reflexive & Intensive Pronouns: Fifth Grade English Student Guide

Pronouns bring efficiency and elegance to written language, preventing tiresome repetition by standing in place of nouns while clarifying who performs, receives, or emphasizes an action.

The World of Personal Pronouns

A personal pronoun refers to a specific person, place, or thing. Personal pronouns vary depending on person (first, second, or third), number (singular or plural), and case (subjective, objective, or possessive). Understanding pronoun cases ensures that your sentences maintain grammatical harmony.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|               PERSONAL PRONOUN CASE BREAKDOWN                |
+---------------+---------------------+------------------------+
| CASE          | GRAMMATICAL ROLE    | PRONOUNS               |
+---------------+---------------------+------------------------+
| Subjective    | Subject of a verb   | I, you, he, she, it,   |
|               |                     | we, they               |
+---------------+---------------------+------------------------+
| Objective     | Direct/Indirect obj | me, you, him, her, it, |
|               | or obj of prep      | us, them               |
+---------------+---------------------+------------------------+
| Possessive    | Shows ownership     | my, mine, your, yours, |
|               |                     | his, her, hers, its,   |
|               |                     | our, ours, their, theirs|
+---------------+---------------------+------------------------+

Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns perform the action of the sentence. In the sentence, "She explored the cavern," the pronoun "she" is the subject executing the verb "explored." When joining two people as a compound subject, always use subject pronouns: "Elena and I completed the science project," never "Elena and me."

Object Pronouns

Object pronouns receive the action of a verb or follow a preposition. In the sentence, "The guide led us through the museum," "us" is the direct object of the verb "led." In the sentence, "A letter arrived for him and me," both "him" and "me" are objects of the preposition "for." A helpful strategy for checking compound objects is to temporarily remove the other person: you would say "A letter arrived for me," so "for him and me" is correct.

Reflexive Pronouns: Reflecting the Action Back

Reflexive pronouns are formed by adding -self (singular) or -selves (plural) to personal pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. Note that nonstandard forms like "hisself" or "theirselves" do not exist in standard English.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|               HOW REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS OPERATE                 |
|                                                              |
|   [ Subject ] ==========================> [ Verb ]           |
|        ^                                     |               |
|        |                                     v               |
|        +------- [ Reflexive Pronoun ] <------+               |
|                 (Reflects action back to subject)            |
|                                                              |
|   Example: The young astronaut trained herself daily.        |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

The Essential Function of Reflexive Pronouns

A reflexive pronoun is used when the subject and the object of the sentence refer to the exact same person or thing. The action reflects back onto the subject. For instance, in "The hiker prepared himself for the steep climb," the subject "hiker" and the object "himself" are the same person. If you remove a reflexive pronoun from a sentence, the sentence becomes incomplete: "The hiker prepared for the steep climb" loses its direct object or changes meaning.

Intensive Pronouns: Providing Powerful Emphasis

Intensive pronouns share the exact same spelling as reflexive pronouns (myself, himself, themselves, etc.), but their grammatical job is completely different. An intensive pronoun serves solely to add emphasis to an antecedent noun or pronoun that appears earlier in the sentence.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|             REFLEXIVE VS. INTENSIVE PRONOUNS                 |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| REFLEXIVE PRONOUN            | INTENSIVE PRONOUN             |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| Necessary for the sentence   | Optional; adds emphasis only. |
| to make complete sense.      |                               |
| Receives the action.         | Emphasizes a preceding noun.  |
| "Maya bought herself a book."| "Maya herself built the desk."|
| If removed: "Maya bought a   | If removed: "Maya built the   |
| book" changes grammar/meaning| desk" still makes full sense. |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------+

The Removal Test for Intensive Pronouns

The easiest way to tell the difference between a reflexive pronoun and an intensive pronoun is the removal test. Because an intensive pronoun only adds emphasis, you can remove it from the sentence entirely without disturbing the core grammatical structure or meaning. Consider the sentence: "The governor herself signed the historic bill." If you remove "herself," the sentence remains fully intact: "The governor signed the historic bill." Therefore, "herself" is functioning as an intensive pronoun.

Exercises and Solutions

Exercise 1: Distinguishing Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns. For each of the following sentences, identify the bolded pronoun ending in -self or -selves and determine whether it functions as a reflexive pronoun or an intensive pronoun: Sentence A: "The brave firefighters themselves inspected the scorched perimeter." Sentence B: "After walking through the pouring rain, we dried ourselves with warm towels." Sentence C: "You must believe in yourself when facing difficult challenges."

Solution 1: In Sentence A, "themselves" is an intensive pronoun because it emphasizes the subject "firefighters" and can be removed without altering the essential grammar or meaning ("The brave firefighters inspected the scorched perimeter"). In Sentence B, "ourselves" is a reflexive pronoun because it acts as the direct object of the verb "dried," showing that the action reflects back onto the subject "we." In Sentence C, "yourself" is a reflexive pronoun acting as the object of the preposition "in," reflecting back to the subject "you."

Exercise 2: Choosing Correct Personal Pronoun Cases. Select the correct pronoun from each pair in parentheses and explain your reasoning: "Yesterday, (he / him) and (I / me) met the marine biologist at the aquarium, and she explained the whale migration patterns to (we / us)."

Solution 2: The correct selections are "he," "I," and "us." "He" and "I" are correct because they serve as parts of the compound subject of the verb "met"; testing each alone confirms this ("He met the biologist" and "I met the biologist"). "Us" is correct because it serves as the object of the preposition "to," which requires the objective case pronoun ("explained to us").