Pronouns

Reflexive & Reciprocal Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive: reflecting back on the subject, like a mirror
When we want to refer back to the subject of the sentence (or subject of a clause) we use a reflexive pronoun. Reflexive pronouns end in either ‘self’ in the singular, or ‘selves’ in the plural.
As you can see in the chart below, there are eight reflexive pronouns:

As you can see in the chart below, there are eight reflexive pronouns:

	Reflexive Pronoun
Singular	myself yourself himself, herself, itself
Plural	ourselves yourselves themselves

The chart below is there to provide you with examples of sentences with and without reflexive pronouns:

	Reflexive Pronouns
the underlined words are NOT the same person/thing	the underlined words are the SAME person/thing
Jane saw Ashley today.	Jane saw herself reflected in the water.
Why don’t you write about it?	Why don’t you write about yourself?
I sent him a letter.	He sent himself a letter.
He wrote her a poem.	She wrote herself a poem.
The fish swims with Jane.	My fish swims by itself.
You like John?	We promote ourselves.
Can you find my dog?	Can you kids look after yourselves?
They blame you.	They blame themselves.

Reciprocal Pronouns

Reciprocal: given or done in return; expressing mutual action
When two or more subjects act in the same way towards each other, we call them reciprocal pronouns.
Example:
If Jane is talking to John, and John is talking to Jane, we say “Jane and John are talking to each other.”

The action of talking is being “reciprocated” or being given or done in return. Believe it or not, there are only two options when it comes to reciprocal pronouns, and they are both two words long. Here are some examples:
“Jane and John are talking to each other.” or “Jane and John are talking to one another.”

When do we use Reciprocal Pronouns?

Well, first, there must be at least two nouns (persons, things) involved. This means that reciprocal pronouns cannot be used with singular pronouns, like “he”, “she”, or “it”. Secondly, the two nouns must be doing the same thing.

To help you prepare, here are a few examples:

Jane and John play games with each other.
Nicholas and Jane walk to class with one another.
My brothers kept hitting one another.
The cars ran into each other.
We gave each other a high five!
Why can’t you love one another?
We are not allowed to see each other.
You and I studied language arts with each other.

Have you noticed one being used more often than the other? That’s right, each other is used a lot more frequently than one another. This is because each other usually sounds more formal.

There is a debate about using one another only when there are three or more people or things, but there is no formal rule to this.

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Demonstratives & Distributive Pronouns

Demonstrative And Distributive Pronouns Man Holding List Medium

Near

Far

Singular

this

that

Plural

these

those

Examples:

These are my favorite shoes that I am wearing. (on my feet so they are close)

Those are my shoes in the closet. (farther away in the closet)

Demonstrative pronouns are also used as demonstrative adjectives. They are the same words, but as a pronoun they can stand alone. As a demonstrative adjective, they qualify a noun.

Examples of a demonstrative pronoun and adjective:

This is ugly. (demonstrative pronoun)

That cupcake looks good. (demonstrative adjective + noun)

Distributive Pronouns

Each of the children will be able to take a turn.

Either of you can finish the project.

Either and neither are used when referring to two people or things. For more than two people or things, we use the words all or none.

All of these kids are tired and unhappy.

None of them have eaten lunch yet.

When using a distributive pronoun as a distributive adjective they must be followed immediately by nouns.

Each child wore a red shirt.

Neither boy was allowed to play outside.