Intensive vs. Reflexive Pronouns: Sixth Grade English Grammar
Intensive and reflexive pronouns share identical physical spellings, yet they execute profoundly different syntactic and rhetorical duties in English sentences.
The Morphology of Self-Pronouns
Both intensive and reflexive pronouns are formed by adding the suffix "-self" (for singular pronouns) or "-selves" (for plural pronouns) to personal pronoun roots: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves.
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| PRONOUN MATRIX: SELF-FORMS |
+-------------------+-----------------------+------------------------------+
| Person | Singular Form | Plural Form |
+-------------------+-----------------------+------------------------------+
| First Person | myself | ourselves |
| Second Person | yourself | yourselves |
| Third Person | himself, herself, | themselves |
| | itself | |
+-------------------+-----------------------+------------------------------+
| NON-STANDARD | *hisself, *theirself, | ALWAYS INCORRECT IN |
| FORBIDDEN FORMS | *theirselves | STANDARD FORMAL ENGLISH |
+-------------------+-----------------------+------------------------------+
Eliminating Non-Standard Illogical Formations
In informal speech, you may occasionally hear non-standard formations such as "hisself," "ourself," or "theirselves." These words do not exist in standard English. The only grammatically recognized third-person masculine singular form is "himself," and the only recognized third-person plural form is "themselves."
Reflexive Pronouns: Reflecting Action Back to the Subject
A reflexive pronoun is a necessary grammatical component of a sentence. It refers directly back to the subject of the clause and serves as a direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition.
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| THE REFLEXIVE PRONOUN MIRROR |
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| [ Subject ] ====== (Action travels) =====> [ Object (-self) ] |
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| The mountain climber roped himself. |
| (Subject) (Verb) (Direct Object) |
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| Key Test: If you delete "himself", the sentence collapses: |
| *"The mountain climber roped." (Roped what? The sentence is broken!) |
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Essential Syntactic Function
Reflexive pronouns are essential because the action of the verb reflects back onto the performer. In "The apprentice taught herself trigonometry," "herself" is the direct object of "taught." In "The weary traveler bought himself a warm meal," "himself" is the indirect object. In "She kept the secret to herself," "herself" is the object of the preposition "to."
The "Removal Test" for Reflexive Pronouns
To prove that a pronoun is reflexive, apply the Removal Test. If you eliminate the "-self" pronoun from the sentence and the remaining clause becomes incomplete, nonsensical, or grammatically incomplete, the pronoun is reflexive. Because it carries essential grammatical meaning, a reflexive pronoun cannot be removed without damaging the sentence.
Intensive Pronouns: Providing Rhetorical Emphasis
An intensive pronoun does not perform an essential grammatical function. Instead, its sole purpose is to emphasize, highlight, or magnify a preceding noun or pronoun.
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| THE INTENSIVE EMPHASIS BEAM |
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| [ Subject ] ====== [ INTENSIVE PRONOUN ] ======> [ Predicate ] |
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| The governor herself signed the bill. |
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| Key Test: If you delete "herself", the sentence stands strong: |
| "The governor signed the bill." (Meaning remains completely intact!) |
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Rhetorical Weight and Placement
Intensive pronouns typically appear directly beside the noun they emphasize: "The president himself delivered the address," or "The students themselves designed the museum exhibit." Occasionally, an intensive pronoun appears at the end of the clause: "The architect drafted the blueprints himself." In both placements, the pronoun conveys surprise, admiration, or personal responsibility.
The "Removal Test" for Intensive Pronouns
Apply the Removal Test to verify an intensive pronoun. In "The commander herself inspected the defensive wall," removing "herself" leaves "The commander inspected the defensive wall." Because the core meaning and grammatical completeness remain entirely intact, the pronoun functions purely as an intensive intensifier.
Misuse of "Myself" in Compound Sentences
A common grammatical error among middle school writers is substituting "myself" in place of the objective pronoun "me" or the subjective pronoun "I."
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| AVOIDING THE "MYSELF" COURTESY TRAP |
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| INCORRECT: Please deliver the final report to Mr. Davis and myself. |
| CORRECTION: Please deliver the final report to Mr. Davis and me. |
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| INCORRECT: Julian and myself organized the charity drive. |
| CORRECTION: Julian and I organized the charity drive. |
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| RULE: "Myself" can NEVER be used unless "I" is the subject! |
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Why the Misuse Occurs
Writers often mistakenly believe that "myself" sounds more polite or sophisticated than "me." However, "myself" cannot be used in a sentence unless the subject of that exact same clause is "I." In the sentence "Please deliver the report to myself," the hidden subject is "you" (imperative). Because "you" does not match "myself," the reflexive pronoun is invalid, and the objective pronoun "me" must be used.
Exercises and Solutions
Exercise 1: Classifying Reflexive vs. Intensive Pronouns. In a single comprehensive paragraph, classify the "-self" pronoun in each of the following sentences as either reflexive or intensive, applying the Removal Test to explain your reasoning: Sentence A: "The deep-sea diver checked the oxygen regulator herself before submerging." Sentence B: "After slipping on the wet rocks, the young scout bruised himself." Sentence C: "The author himself answered our letters regarding the novel's ending."
Solution 1: In Sentence A, "herself" is an intensive pronoun because it merely emphasizes the subject "diver"; if removed, the sentence "The deep-sea diver checked the oxygen regulator before submerging" remains grammatically complete and clear. In Sentence B, "himself" is a reflexive pronoun functioning as the direct object of "bruised"; if removed, the sentence becomes "the young scout bruised," which is incomplete because the transitive verb lacks its necessary object. In Sentence C, "himself" is an intensive pronoun highlighting "author"; removing it leaves "The author answered our letters regarding the novel's ending," retaining full syntactic sense and proving that the pronoun is non-essential emphasis.
Exercise 2: Correcting Reflexive Pronoun Misuses. Rewrite the following two sentences to eliminate the improper use of "myself" or non-standard pronouns, explaining the grammatical logic for each revision in a detailed paragraph: Sentence 1: "The captain chose Marcus and myself for the dawn patrol." Sentence 2: "The pioneer built hisself a log cabin before the winter blizzards struck."
Solution 2: Sentence 1 should be corrected to: "The captain chose Marcus and me for the dawn patrol." In this sentence, the pronoun serves as a compound direct object receiving the action of "chose"; using the isolation test ("The captain chose me") confirms that the objective case "me" is required, while "myself" is invalid because the subject is "captain," not "I." Sentence 2 should be corrected to: "The pioneer built himself a log cabin before the winter blizzards struck." The word "hisself" is a non-standard formation that does not exist in formal English; the proper third-person reflexive pronoun is "himself," which correctly functions as the indirect object reflecting back to the subject "pioneer."