Reflexive Pronouns.

Reflexive pronouns in English language differ in persons, genders and numbers, in contrast to the pronoun “yourself” in Russian

I asked myself.				I asked myself.
He asked himself.				He asked himself.
She asked hersel f.				She asked herself.
We asked ourselves.				We asked ourselves.
You asked yourselves.				You asked yourself.
You asked yourself.				You asked yourself.
They asked themselves.				They asked themselves.
It controls itself.				It (the device) controls itself.

Reflexive pronoun myself after some Russian verbs it is not translated into English:

He feels well. - He feels good.

He behaved like a child.- He acted like a child.

But: Behave yourself! - Behave yourself!

Notis not feeling himself.- He's out of his element.

English reflexive pronouns often correspond to the ending - xia/s Russian reflexive verbs (abbreviated " myself"): to defend, to appear, to have fun, to have fun. For example:

The soldiers tried to defend themselves. - The soldiers tried to defend themselves.

She found herself in hospital.- She ended up in the hospital.

We enjoyed ourselves greatly. - We had a lot of fun.

If the action expressed reflexive verb, refers to those actions that a person usually performs himself, the reflexive pronoun is often omitted. These verbs include: to wash - wash; to shave- to shave; to dress - get dressed, etc. There are three possible uses of these verbs: I wash – Iget washed –I wash myself (arranged in descending order of frequency of use). But we will say that The child is learning to dress himself, because small children are often dressed by their parents.

Indefinite pronoun one has its own reflexive pronoun oneself:

One mustn’ t fool oneself. - There is no need to deceive yourself.

Reflexive pronouns are used with other indefinite pronouns himself or themselves:

No one must fool himself.- No one should deceive themselves.

Everyone should decide it - Everyone must decide this for themselves.

themselves.

After prepositions, instead of reflexive pronouns, personal pronouns can be used when it is absolutely obvious who we are talking about. Compare:

She took her dog with her. - She took the dog with her.

(She couldn't take the dog with anyone else).

Shewastalking with herself. - She was talking to herself.

(She could very well be talking to someone else, designated by the pronoun her).

Reflexive pronouns do not have a possessive form and are not used after possessive pronouns. After a possessive pronoun, the word is used to convey a reflexive or intensifying meaning own – own:

He cooks his own dinner.= - He cooks his own lunch.

He cooks dinner for himself.

At the same time, before own there can be an intensifying adverb very:

Do you like the cake? The recipe - Do you like cake? This is my

is my very own. own recipe.

Combination of a possessive pronoun with own can also take place after a preposition of :

I'd love to have a house- I would like to have it so much

of my own. your own home.

Reflexive pronouns can take on an intensifying meaning and are used as an attachment to nouns and personal pronouns. In such cases they correspond to Russian pronouns yourself, yourself, yourself etc. and can stand either at the end of a sentence or after a word whose meaning they reinforce. For example:

I saw it myself. = I myself saw it.- I saw it myself.

Intensifying pronouns can be used instead of personal pronouns in introductory phrases like: as for - concerning; (un) like - unlike/similar; except for - except; but for - if not. For example:

As for myself, I don’ care what - As for me, I don't care

you decide to do. what you decide to do.

Pronouns fill a large part of oral speech, so their analysis plays a special role. Surely, few people think about both their native language and their language. foreign languages what pronouns are there? They are somehow, as they say, automatically spoken by us. But in this lesson, along with the classification of pronouns, we will learn several new pronouns.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns, as the name indicates, are used instead of persons. You most likely remember that there are 6 cases in the Russian language. So get ready for the good news - in English there are half as many of them, that is, three! Nominative - this is clear to everyone; indirect - these are all other Russian cases taken together; possessive case - answers the question whose? (whose? whose?)

Table 1. Personal pronouns in English

Singular		Plural		Face
Named case	Kosv. case	Named case	Kosv. case
He - he (only for animate)
She - she (only for the animate)
It - it, this (only for inanimate)

* The third column (face) is optional for memorization. It is intended for those who remember division into faces from the Russian language course.

Possessive pronouns

In the previous paragraph we said that possessive pronouns answer whose question? (whose? whose?). Let's compare this case with the nominative case.

Table 2. Possessive pronouns in English

Nominative	Possessive

A logical question would be: where do the 2 forms of the possessive case come from? Notice also that there is a dot everywhere after the second form. Everything is very simple - we put the first form before nouns, and the second - when there is no pronoun after it.

• Whose book is it? - It is my book.= It is mine.
• Whose book is this? - It is my book. - That's mine.

Reflexive pronouns

English reflexive pronouns are translated into Russian as “himself, yourself.” In a word, they mean the return of action to oneself, a loved one. Let's see how they differ from personal pronouns.

Table 3. Reflexive pronouns in English

Personal pronouns	Reflexive pronouns

Please note that, firstly, all reflexive pronouns contain the particle -self . It is precisely this that is translated as “yourself.” And secondly, .

• I have done the homework myself. - I did homework myself.
• I can see myself in the mirror. - I see myself in the mirror.
• I wrote a story about myself. - I wrote a story about myself.

Finally, a short grammatical excursion: since possessive pronouns are placed before nouns, they are also called modifiers. Definitions, by the way, include and (they also come before nouns). Another category of definitions will be discussed

Pronoun myself is often used incorrectly, both by native speakers and by learners of English. In this article we will try to understand its correct use.

At the beginning I would like to give a little grammatical information: Pronoun myself is a reflexive pronoun ( reflexive pronoun). Reflexive pronouns are used if within simple sentence the person or thing to which they refer coincides with the person or thing designated by the subject. In Russian, reflexive pronouns in all persons and in both numbers are usually translated by the word yourself or yourself. Reflexive pronouns also include: himself, himself, himself, himself, themselves and etc.
I see myself in the mirror. I see myself in the mirror. (person expressed by pronoun myself, and the person expressed by the subject I, match up)

Now let's look at the main difficulties of using the pronoun myself on specific examples.
I see myself playing football. I see myself playing football.
I"m going to treat myself to a mud bath. I'm going to treat (treat myself) with mud baths.

In both sentences myself(that is, you) is the object on which you (the subject) perform the action.

It's easy to see that myself is an object in a sentence. However, it is often confused with the pronoun me, which can also act as a complement. This is the first difficulty. Personal pronouns in object case ( me, him, her, them etc.) are used when the subject and object are different persons or objects, and reflexive pronouns are used when they are the same.
I saw him. I saw him. (object and subject are different persons, so we use the personal pronoun in the objective case)
He saw himself. He saw himself. (object and subject are one person, so we use a reflexive pronoun)

In sentences like Please contact Squiggly, Aardvark, or myself with questions. usage myself wrong because Squiggly, Aardvark and myself serve as complements in the sentence, and the implied subject ( you) is different from a pronoun, so it should be used me.

To avoid making mistakes, omit other additions ( Squiggly And Aardvark) and it will be clear that the right option is Please contact me.

Also myself is often confused with the pronoun I, which can only be the subject. This is the next difficulty. Usually the error appears when there are several subjects in a sentence. Say Aardvark and myself will quench the fire.- incorrect.

Try omitting other subjects again ( Aardvark) and get I will quench the fire. Therefore the correct option is: Aardvark and I will quench the fire.

Myself(as well as other reflexive pronouns) in English can also be used for emphasis (in the meaning of himself). In this case, the given pronoun is placed after the noun phrase to which it refers, and if it refers to the subject, it can be placed at the end of the sentence.
I myself found the job. I found this job myself.
I painted it myself. I drew this myself.

In this case the pronoun myself It only adds expressiveness to the sentence and helps to emphasize it. The meaning of the sentence will not change; if it is omitted, the sentence will simply be perceived differently.

When we want to say that we did something ourselves, in Russian we say: I put on makeup, he cut himself, she introduced herself. In English, to talk about such actions, you need to use reflexive pronouns. In this article we will look at:

• What are reflexive pronouns and what are they?
  
• Using reflexive pronouns in English
  

What are reflexive pronouns?

Reflexive pronouns show us that a person performs an action in relation to himself. Why are they returnable? Because the action is directed towards the one who performs it, that is, it returns to him.

In Russian, we most often show this with -sya and -sya, which we add to actions. For example: cut Xia(himself), introduced Xia(himself), made up sya(herself), broke sya(self).

In English there are special words for this, which are formed by adding a tail to the pronouns my, your, our, them, her, him, it:

• -self (if we are talking about one person/object);
• -selves (if we are talking about several people/objects).

Let's look at the table:

Singular
I I	myself I myself
you You	yourself you yourself
he He	himself he/himself
she she	herself she/herself
it it	itself it is itself
Plural
you You	yourselves you yourself/yourself
they They	themselves they/themselves
we We	ourselves we ourselves/ourselves

Now let's find out when and how we use these pronouns.

Using reflexive pronouns in English

We use reflexive pronouns in 2 cases:

1. To show that a person’s action is directed towards himself
For example: I got dirty with paint (stained myself) while painting the wall.

In this case, our pronouns are placed after action what a person does to himself. We translate this action into Russian by adding -sya, -sya to it or adding the word “yourself”. The education scheme will be as follows:

Actor + action + reflexive pronoun

Examples:

Don't touch it, you can cut yourself.
Don't touch this, you might cut yourself (cut yourself).

She introduced herself when entered in the room.
She introduced herself (introducing herself) when she entered the room.

They warmed themselves in the sun.
They basked (warmed themselves) in the sun.

We divided ourselves into three groups.
We split (divided ourselves) into three groups.

2. To emphasize that a person did something on his own
For example: I painted this wall myself.

In this case, the reflexive pronoun is we put:

• after man who committed it;
  

Actor + reflexive pronoun + action + subject

• at the end of a sentence , after the object in relation to which the action is performed.

Actor + action + subject + reflexive pronoun

Both options will be correct. When translating into Russian, we add the word “sam”.

Examples:

I can read it myself.
I can read it myself.

We ourselves cooked the dinner.
We prepared this dinner ourselves.

He found out the truth himself.
He found out the truth himself.

They themselves do their homework.
They did their homework themselves.

Words not used with reflexive pronouns

There are actions in English that usually do not need to be followed by a reflexive pronoun. Simply because it is clear that they are aimed at the person committing them. For example:

dress - get dressed
hide - hide
wash - to wash/wash
bathe - to bathe
shave - to shave
feel - feel
relax - relax

Wrong: She washed herself and dressed herself.
She washed and got dressed.

Right: She washed and dressed.
She washed and got dressed.

Examples:

I am feeling ill now.
I feel sick now.

He shaves every week.
He shaves every week.

You should relax.
You need to relax.

However, you can use them with reflexive pronouns in cases where you need to emphasize that the person did it himself, made an effort to do something.

Her arm is broken but she can dress herself.
Her arm is broken, but she can dress herself.

Using by with reflexive pronouns

Very often reflexive pronouns are used together with by:

by myself - one/himself
by yourself - alone/by yourself
by themselves - one/himself
by ourselves - alone/himself
by herself - alone/himself
by himself - alone/himself
by itself - one/himself

We use this combination to say that a person doing something alone or without outside help . Usually this phrase is placed at the end of a sentence.

Examples:

She cleaned the house by herself.
She cleaned the house alone.

He likes to have dinner by himself.
He likes to have dinner alone.

Children can't go to the cinema by themselves.
Children cannot go to the cinema alone.

I am going to live by myself.
I'm going to live alone.

So, reflexive pronouns show us that the action is directed at the one who performs it or that he does it on his own. Be sure to complete the task to consolidate what you have learned. theoretical knowledge on practice.

Reinforcement task

Translate the following sentences into English:

1. I baked this pie myself.
2. He will go to the cinema alone.
3. She got hurt yesterday.
4. I can’t cook dinner alone.
5. She bought this car herself.
6. They heard it themselves.
7. He ate this cake alone.
8. I took a hot pan and got burned.

Leave your answers in the comments below the article.

Reflexive and emphatic pronouns - Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns in English are formed according to the formulas:
1. Reflexive pronoun in singular. h = personal pronoun + self
2. Reflexive pronoun in plural. h = personal pronoun + selves

Number	Face	Reflexive pronoun	Translation
Unit	1	myself	yourself, yourself, herself
	2	yourself	yourself, yourself, yourself, yourself
	3	himself	yourself, yourself
		herself	myself, myself
		itself[?t?self]	yourself, yourself, yourself, yourself
Mn.	1	ourselves	yourself, yourself
	2	yourselves	yourself, yourself
	3	themselves[ð?m?selvz]	yourself, yourself

Use of reflexive pronouns

1. Reflexive pronouns express the direction of action on the one who performs it.
I sluiced myself. I wet myself.
He made himself a snapshot./He made a snapshot for himself. He took a photograph for himself./He took a photograph for himself.
A. There are a number of verbs after which reflexive pronouns are not used (unless it is necessary to emphasize that the person performed a certain action himself):
to shave
to relax
to dress
to bathe
to hide
He shaved, bathed and dressed. He shaved, washed and dressed.
b. Reflexive pronouns are used in expressions:
Help yourself! (Help yourselves!) Help yourself! (Help yourself!)
Do it yourself! Do it yourself!
Behave yourself! Behave yourself!
Enjoy yourself! Enjoy life!
Hi yourself! Hello to you too! (A way of greeting someone back; a colloquial expression.)
and etc.
2. Intensifying pronouns enhance the meaning of the statement.
I wrote it myself. I myself wrote this.
She had a chance to do it herself. She had the opportunity/had the chance to do it herself.

Conclusion: Reflexive pronouns in English are used to show that:
1. The object performs the action itself.
2. The object performs an action on itself.