(Basic) Emphatic Reflexive Pronouns (I myself): Snap Language™

Emphatic Reflexive Pronouns (I myself) | (A-Level, Basic)

Prerequisites: For this lesson, you should know subjective personal pronouns, objective personal pronouns, and reflexive pronouns. (Links open in a new tab.)

Emphatic Reflexives or Intensive Reflexives

You can use reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, herself, yourselves, etc.) to emphasize the subject or object of the sentence. You can place the emphatic reflexive immediately after the subject or object or at the end of the sentence.

For example, if you want to say that John (and not anyone else) wrote a message, you can say,

• John himself wrote this message.

• John wrote this message himself.

You can also use the emphatic reflexive to emphasize or intensify the person who spent time, energy, and effort to do the action. For example, you can say,

• I myself cooked the fish.

• I cooked the fish myself.

This means you did not buy it or ask someone else to cook it for you. You did it yourself.

In some situations, you can use the emphatic reflexive (or intensive reflexive) to contrast one person to another. With this meaning, the emphatic reflexive pronoun is always immediately after the subject. For example, you can say,

• Ann eats a lot of meat. I myself prefer vegetables.

• I think Peter is a great soccer player. Peter himself thinks he still needs more practice.

• Everyone wants to go skiing. Jack himself wants to go to the beach.

In the first sentence, you are emphasizing a contrast between Ann and you. In the second, you are emphasizing a contrast between you and Peter.

Reflexives and Emphatic (or Intensive) Reflexives

Although you use reflexive pronouns in the emphatic reflexive construction, they have different meanings.

She taught herself how to play the piano. (reflexive pronoun with reflexive meaning)
She herself taught me how to play the piano. (emphatic use; “she is the one person who taught me how to play")

Practice

Practice 1. Fill in the blanks using the emphatic reflexive.

Related Lesson

Reflexive pronouns. Learn about the reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, herself, yourselves and so on.

Expression: By oneself. Learn the meanings of the expression “by oneself.”

Back to Catalog More Grammar Lessons

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