Reflexive and Emphatic Pronouns Exercise

Tell which pronouns in the following sentences are reflexive and which are emphatic.

1.    I will do it myself.
2.    John hurt himself while he was jogging in the park.
3.    He himself made the remark.
4.    I wash myself when I get up.
5.    The boys fooled themselves.
6.    We have got ourselves into a mess.
7.    Susie killed herself.
8.    We enjoyed ourselves at the party.
9.    You have set yourself an unattainable goal.
10.    We exerted ourselves.
11.    A house divided against itself cannot stand.
12.    You always think about yourself.
13.    Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
14.    He was sitting by himself.
15.    I cannot bring myself to do it.
16.    The poor woman poisoned herself.
17.    I myself did the job.
18.    They gave themselves a lot of trouble.

Answers

1.    Emphatic
2.    Reflexive
3.    Emphatic
4.    Reflexive
5.    Reflexive
6.    Emphatic
7.    Reflexive
8.    Reflexive
9.    Reflexive
10.    Reflexive
11.    Reflexive
12.    Reflexive
13.    Reflexive
14.    Reflexive
15.    Reflexive
16.    Reflexive
17.    Emphatic
18.    Reflexive

Notes

When a compound personal pronoun (Examples are: myself, yourself, himself etc.) is used as the object of a verb and refers to the same person or thing as that is denoted by the subject, it is called a reflexive pronoun.

For example, in the sentence ‘Susie hurt herself’, the subject (Susie) and the object (herself) refer to the same person Susie. Herself is, therefore, used as a reflexive pronoun.

When a compound personal pronoun is used for the sake of emphasis it is called an emphatic pronoun.

Examples are given below:

I will do it myself.
You yourself need to give an explanation.