English Grammar Drills

Reflexive pronouns
Pronouns 75
Reflexive pronouns are a unique group of pronouns that always end in either -self or -selves. Here
is the complete list:
Person Singular Plural
First person myself ourselves
Second person yourself yourselves
Third person himself themselves
herself
themselves
itself
themselves
Reflexive pronouns have no independent meaning; they must refer back to some noun (or
pronoun) mentioned earlier in the same sentence. This previously mentioned noun is called the
antecedent of the reflexive pronoun. The word reflexive comes from a Latin word meaning “to
bend back.” Reflexive pronouns must “bend back” to their antecedent, the nearest appropriate
noun—usually but not always the subject of the sentence. Here are some examples with the
reflexive pronouns in italics and their antecedents in bold:
The queen smiled at herself in the mirror.
The movie refuses to take itself seriously.
The couple had accidentally locked themselves out of their car.
The computer shut itself off.
I want to do it by myself.
Notice that in all of these examples, the antecedent of the reflexive pronoun is the subject of the
sentence. While this is generally the case, the antecedent can also be the object of the preceding
verb. For example, look at the following sentence:
Mary told John to help himself to some dessert.
Here the antecedent of the reflexive pronoun himself is not the subject of the sentence, Mary,
but the object, John. If we tried to make the subject the antecedent, the result would be
ungrammatical:
X Mary told John to help herself to some dessert.