Reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns in English

hello everyone this is Andrew at Crown Academy of English today we are doing a grammar lesson and the subject is reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns so let's start introduction I am making mark a cup of coffee I am making him a cup of coffee so you can see here the word him is a personal pronoun and this is replacing the word mark ok so this sentence is correct but if I would like a cup of coffee how do we say this so if I want a coffee how can we say this I am making me a cup of coffee so this is wrong we cannot say this with a personal pronoun here I have said me which is a personal pronoun but this is wrong I am making myself a cup of coffee this is now using a reflexive pronoun myself and this is correct so here this is an example of a reflexive pronoun which is what we are going to look at in this lesson so in this lesson you will learn the 8 reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns and then you will learn how to use the reflexive pronouns and how to use the intensive pronouns so let's carry on so in this column in red this is the list of eight reflexive pronouns and eight intensive pronouns so the eight words are reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns it is the same words for both so in yellow we have the singular so the first person is myself second person yourself third person male himself female herself and neuter itself and then we have the plural so first person plural ourselves second person yourselves and third person themselves so look carefully at the spelling in the singular they all end with the letter F and in the plural they end with the letters ves okay now so the reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns they are the same eight words but they are different and the use of them is very different and we will see that in this lesson so first let's look at the reflexive pronouns so we use a reflexive pronoun when the subject and object of the sentence are the same person a reflexive pronoun is a knob act that reflects back to a subject so it is an object of the sentence and it reflects back to a subject example Jane is preparing herself for the meeting as you can see Jane is the subject of the sentence and she's also the object of the sentence so this in fact means Jane is preparing Jane for the meeting so herself reflects back to the subject okay this is the object and it reflects back to the subject this is the same person and we can use a reflexive pronoun as three different types of object so the reflexive pronoun can represent a direct object an indirect object or an object of a preposition so let's look at examples of each of these three so first direct object we use a reflexive pronoun as a direct object to reflect back to the subject example Mark is teaching himself to play the guitar so the subject is Mark because it is mark who is teaching and the object is also mark mark is teaching mark so we use a reflexive pronoun and it is male so it is himself the position of the reflexive pronoun is immediately after the verb so you can see the verb here teaching and then we have the reflexive pronoun some more examples I am teaching myself to play the guitar Jane is teaching herself to play the guitar so Jane is female so we used the third person singular female reflexive pronoun herself examples we enjoyed ourselves at the beach mark blamed himself for the car accidents ok let's now look at the reflexive pronoun as an indirect object which is very similar so we use a reflexive pronoun as an indirect object to reflect back to the subject example mark is making himself a sandwich again the subject is mark because it is mark who is making the sandwich and this time the indirect object is also mark because the sandwich is for mark so in this sentence sandwich is the direct object and himself is the indirect object and this reflects back to mark the subject here again the position of the reflexive pronoun is immediately after the verb the verb making and then the reflexive pronoun example my parents have bought themselves a new car my parents is the subject and themselves is the indirect object and it is a third-person plural so we say themselves as an object of preposition so we use a reflexive pronoun as an object or preposition to reflect back to the subject you often talk to yourself the subject is you because it is you who is talking subject and the object is also you because you talk to you and you can see that's this time the position of the reflexive pronoun is immediately after the preposition so here is the preposition so talk has a preposition with it talk to because we talked to somebody so this time the reflexive pronoun comes after the preposition example Jane is looking at herself in the mirror okay Jane is singular the subject which is a third-person singular female herself and it comes directly after the preposition at common reflexive verbs in English transitive verbs so when appropriate we can use reflexive pronouns as the object of these verbs amuse blame content cut dry enjoy help hurt introduce kill prepare teach now there are other verbs there are many other verbs in fact but these are the most common verbs where we use reflexive pronouns let's look at some examples Jane introduced herself to my parents I enjoyed myself at the party okay and the athletes contented himself with second place so contented himself this means that the athlete was satisfied there are some verbs that are always reflexive that do not have a normal form busy one self pride oneself while waiting for the train I busied myself reading a book this means that while I was waiting for the Train i occupied myself I passed the time reading a book okay I stayed busy so this list of verbs at the top of course they don't have to be reflexive sometimes we use them normally without a reflexive pronoun okay but these verbs here they only have a reflexive form there are some verbs that change their meaning when they are reflexive apply so the normal use I applied for a new job today and when it is reflexive if you want to pass your English exam you must apply yourself so apply yourself this means you must work hard so this meaning is very different to when we use apply without a reflexive pronoun help I'm sure you all know what help means means to assist mark helped Jane with her homework okay but the meaning changes when it becomes reflexive mark helped himself to a beer so helped himself this means mark took a beer or he served a beer for himself okay so the meaning is very different find sure you all know the word find means normally if you lose something then later you find something I found my keys today but when it is a reflexive verb it is very different this morning I found myself lying on the floor of the bathroom so this means that I was surprised when I discovered I was on the floor so it means you discover yourself in a situation and you are surprised see so we see something with our eyes I saw David Beckham in London yesterday but when it is reflexive it is very different when I was a child I saw myself as a singer this means I pretended to be a singer I imagined that I was a singer so I was dreaming about being a singer so these verbs change their meaning when they are reflexive and there are other examples but these are very common examples now let's look at some common mistakes we do not use a reflexive pronoun after a preposition of place or with if it is obvious that the meaning is reflexive instead we use a personal object pronoun example he took his umbrella with himself this is wrong he took his umbrella with him this is the correct version so this is because in the context of this sentence and he took his umbrella well the umbrella can only be with the subject of the sentence the umbrella can only be with him okay it cannot be with somebody else so we do not need to specify that it is reflexive because the context of the sentence tells us that it is reflexive so in this instance with the word with or another preposition of place we use a personal object pronoun with him a second common mistake is we do not use a reflexive pronoun as a subject remember we said earlier that a reflexive pronoun is an object of the sentence so we must never use it as a subject so we must use a personal subject pronoun example mark and myself went to London this is wrong we must say mark and I went to London this is correct so here we have used a reflexive pronoun but this is wrong because we need a subject here okay this mistake is very common even with native English speakers okay so be very careful you will hear this and see this a lot but it is a mistake another very common mistake is in English we do not use a reflexive pronoun for actions that people usually do for themselves so example mark shaves himself every morning this is wrong in English this is wrong the correct sentence is mark shaves every morning this is not reflexive Jane is drying herself her hair in English this is wrong the correct version is Jane is drying her hair david is brushing himself his teeth she's wrong the correct version david is brushing his teeth now these are common mistakes by English learners because in other European languages like French and Spanish then all of these verbs are in fact reflexes for example in French we say mark Sarah's truly matter obviously in English that is wrong because in English we consider that shaving is by definition it is a reflexive action so we do not need to specify that okay now intensive pronouns remember it is the same eight words but we use them very differently and the meaning is very different so intensive pronouns they simply add emphasis to a noun or pronoun so the noun or pronoun that they add emphasis to is called the antecedent so intensive pronouns they are not the object of the sentence and unlike reflexive pronouns the subject and object are not the same person so we are not reflecting back to the subject okay we do not have the concept of a reflexive verb example are you sure that Jane is coming to the party yes she herself told me she herself told me so here the word herself is emphasizing she its emphasizing or intensifying the subject she told me nobody else told me so we are stressing the fact that it is Jane who told me and so we are saying in fact that Jane told me personally she told me directly I am making it clear that it was Jane you must sign the contract yourself so yourself is emphasizing the word you we are emphasizing the subject you must sign the contract nobody else so here the incentive pronoun yourself is intensifying or emphasizing the subject you okay and as you can see we have two choices for the position the position of the intensive pronoun is either after the antecedent or at the end of the clause so here we have placed it after the subject and here we have placed it at the end of the clause now there is a specific expression with incentive pronouns we can say the word by plus an intensive pronoun and it means alone or without help example my friends don't want to go to the party so I will go by myself I will go by myself it means I will go alone Jane cooked the dinner by herself this means that only Jane cooked the dinner nobody helped her she cooked the dinner alone the man is sitting on the bench by himself the man is sitting on the bench alone this is the meaning exercises exercise 1 complete these sentences using the correct reflexive pronoun example David is making a salad so what is the correct reflexive pronoun of the answer is himself David is making himself a salad so question 1 and I will give you a few seconds the answer is David you must prepare yourself for the interview question 2 and the answer is our children are teaching themselves English question three and the answer is the horse is fallen on the ground I think it has hurt itself okay so the subject is the horse so the horse is an animal so we refer to it as it because it is neuter so the third person singular neuter reflexive pronoun is itself question four the answer is did you enjoy yourselves in London last week so it is yourselves plural because it was you plural we are talking to several people question 5 the answer is I think that Jane is blaming herself for the accident question six the answer is we helped ourselves to the buffet we helped ourselves to the buffet so this is the first person plural ourselves exercise to use the correct intensive pronoun to emphasize the subject example and this is you singular while the answer is did you yourself wash the car question one the answer is mark likes to sleep after a meal but I myself prefer to go for a walk question 2 the answer is the directors are going to approve the accounts themselves question 3 the answer is Jane has self informed me of her decision finally exercise three I want you to use the correct intensive pronoun to say that the subject is alone or doesn't need help example the answer is I am going to New York by myself next week question one the answer is we prefer to work by ourselves question two and this is referring to you plural we are talking to several people the answer is do you want me to come with you or do you prefer to go by yourselves question three the answer is I didn't touch the oven it broke by itself so here we are referring to a machine to an oven so this is neuter it is an object so it is it so it's a third person singular neuter by itself so this means that the oven it broke without any human intervention okay it broke without touching it so that is the end of the lesson if you want to subscribe to my channel you can click here here is my Twitter account and here are some other videos which you might be interested in and you just need to click on the screen to start them ok my name is Andrew at Crown Academy of English thanks for watching and I will see you very soon bye bye

Channel: Crown Academy of English

Views: 275,201

Keywords: reflexive pronouns, intensive pronouns, english reflexive pronouns, reflexive verbs english, english grammar lesson, english grammar exercises, english grammar, English lessons, Crown Academy of English, English language, anglais, cours d'anglais, grammaire anglaise, pronoms reflexifs anglais

Id: 8JJtU4Ia5JA

Length: 33min 30sec (2010 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2015