Unit 82. Myself / yourself / themselves etc.
Unit 82; Part A
 Study this example: |
| The reflexive pronouns are: singular: myself yourself (one person) himself/herself/itself plural: ourselves yourselves (more than one person) themselves • I don't want you to pay for me. I'll pay for myself. (not I'll pay for me) • Julia had a great holiday. She really enjoyed herself. • Do you talk to yourself sometimes? (said to one person) • If you want more to eat, help yourselves. (said to more than one person) Compare: • It's not our fault. You can't blame us. • It's our own fault. We should blame ourselves. |
Unit 82; Part B
We do not use myself etc. after feel/relax/concentrate/meet:• I feel nervous. I can't relax.
• You must try and concentrate. (not concentrate yourself)
• What time shall we meet? (not meet ourselves, not meet us)
We normally use wash/shave/dress without myself etc. :
• He got up, washed, shaved and dressed. (not washed himself etc.)
You can also say get dressed (He got dressed).
Unit 82; Part C
 Compare -selves and each other: • Kate and Joe stood in front of the mirror and looked at themselves. (= Kate and Joe looked at Kate and Joe) • Kate looked at Joe; Joe looked at Kate. They looked at each other. You can use one another instead of each other: • How long have you and Bill known each other? or ... known one another? • Sue and Ann don't like each other. or ... don't like one another. • Do you and Sarah live near each other? or ... near one another? |
Unit 82; Part D
We also use myself/yourself etc. in another way. For example: • 'Who repaired your bike for you?' 'I repaired it myself.'
I repaired it myself = I repaired it, not anybody else. Here, myself is used to emphasise 'I' (= it makes it stronger).
Some more examples:
• I'm not going to do your work for you. You can do it yourself. (= you, not me)
• Let's paint the house ourselves. It will be much cheaper.
• The film itself wasn't very good, but I loved the music.
• I don't think Liz will get the job. Liz herself doesn't think she'll get it. (or Liz doesn't think she'll get it herself.)
Exercises
Complete the sentences using myself/yourself etc. + the following verbs (in the correct form):Key.2 hurt himself
3 blame herself
4 Put yourself
5 enjoyed themselves
6 burn yourself
7 express myself
blame burn enjoy express hurt |
2 Bill tell down some steps, but fortunately he didn't _________________________.
3 It isn't Sue's fault. She really shouldn't _________________________.
4 Please try and understand how I feel _________________________ in my position.
5 The children had a great time at the beach. They really _________________________.
6 Be careful! That pan is very hot. Don't _________________________.
7 Sometimes I can't say exactly what I mean. I wish I could _________________________ better.
Put in myself/yourself/ourselves etc. or me/you/us etc.Key.2 me
3 myself
4 us
5 yourself
6 you
7 ourselves
8 themselves
9 them
1 Julia had a great holiday. She enjoyed herself .
2 It's not my fault. You can't blame _________.
3 What I did was really bad. I'm ashamed of _________.
4 We've got a problem. I hope you can help _________.
5 'Can I take another biscuit?' 'Of course. Help _________!'
6 You must meet Sarah. I'll introduce _________ to her.
7 Don't worry about us. We can look after _________.
8 I gave them a key to our house so that they could let _________ in.
9 I didn't want anybody to see the letters, so I burned _________.
Complete these sentences. Use myself/yourself etc. only where necessary. Use the following verbs (in the correct form):Key.2 feel
3 dried myself
4 concentrate
5 defend yourself
6 meeting
7 relax
8 wash
concentrate defend dry feel meet relax |
2 I wasn't very well yesterday, but I ____________ much better today.
3 I climbed out of the swimming pool and ____________ with a towel.
4 I tried to study, but I couldn't ____________.
5 If somebody attacks you, you need to be able to ____________.
6 I'm going out with Chris this evening. We're ____________ at 7.30.
7 You're always rushing around. Why don't you sit down and ____________.
8 There was no water, so we couldn't ____________.
Complete the sentences with -selves or each other.Key.2 themselves
3 each other
4 each other
5 themselves
6 each other
7 ourselves
8 each other
9 introduced ourselves to each other
1 How long have you and Bill known each other ?
2 If people work too hard, they can make ____________ ill.
3 I need you and you need me. We need ____________.
4 In Britain friends often give ____________ presents at Christmas.
5 Some people are very selfish. They only think of ____________.
6 Tracy and I don't see ____________ very often these days.
7 We couldn't get back into the house. We had locked ____________ out.
8 They've had an argument. They're not speaking to ____________ at the moment.
9 We'd never met before, so we introduced ____________ to ____________.
| Complete the answers to the questions using myself/yourself/itself etc. Key.2 He cuts it himself. 3 No, I'll post/do it myself. 4 Linda told me herself. / Linda herself told me. / Linda did herself. 5 Why can't you phone him yourself? / ... do it yourself?  |
 | Unit 81 Unit 82 Unit 83 |  |