Reflexive and Intensive PronounsThe forms of reflexive and intensive pronouns are the same. The difference lies in their use. Note the relationship of these forms to the forms of the personal pronouns.
| Personal Pronouns | Reflexive Pronoun | Personal Pronouns | Reflexive Pronoun |
| I | me | my | mine | myself | we | us | our | ours | ourselves |
| you | your | yours | yourself | you | your | yours | yourselves |
| he| she| it | him| her| it | his | hers | its | | himself | herself | itself | | they | them |their |theirs | themselves |
A reflexive pronoun is always the direct object of the verb, and the subject and object are the same person.
• I hurt myself falling down the stairs.
• The dog yelped out loud when it hurt itself on the barbed-wire fence.
• The children burned themselves playing with matches.
A reflexive pronoun is called an intensive pronoun in the following situations. Note that the pronoun could be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence. If it can be omitted, the pronoun is intensive and used for emphasis.
• It is used as an appositive: Mike, himself, bought the car. His parents didn't pay for it.
• It is used as an indirect object: Jeanie bought herself a guitar.
• It's the object of a preposition: She learned to play the guitar all by herself.
• Left at home by themselves, the children seemed lonely.
• NoteIn all of the above sentences the intensive pronoun or its phrase is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. It could be omitted.
Mike bought the car. His parents didn't pay for it.
Jeanie bought a guitar.
She learned to play the guitar. Left at home, the children seemed lonely.
If the sentences make sense without the pronoun or its phrase, it's an intensive pronoun and is used for emphasis.