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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 3
Lesson 5: Indefinite pronouns, pronoun vagueness, and emphatic pronounsEmphatic pronouns
Sometimes we use reflexive pronouns like "myself" and "ourselves" for emphasis in a sentence, like, "If you won't help me, then I'll do it myself!" KA's Grammar Fellow, David, explains this usage.
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what if I say,"I made my breakfast" is that correct?(18 votes)
No. It should be I made myself breakfast.(4 votes)
"You yourself should know better than to wait until the last minute to write an essay"
How does this sentence make sense?(6 votes)
I don't see anything grammatically wrong with it (I might be completely wrong since English isn't my native language), but it makes sense because the "yourself" is an emphatic pronoun and it puts more emphasis to the subject, i.e., "you". It just gives an extra "punch" to the subject. Maybe the "you" has had a former bad experience of waiting till the last minute to write an essay, so the speaker is kind of, you know, putting stress on that experience and saying that "you should know it, because you have done it before and you know what happens". It's neat because all these things are fit into this one word "yourself". It just made the sentence so concise.
This is just what I thought. Sorry for the long answer but I hope that helps. And if I'm mistaken, feel free to correct me. :)(14 votes)
is what a noun or a verb(7 votes)
Hi Braydin! A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea ("Tom", "China", "bread", and "happiness" are all nouns). A verb is a part of speech that shows an action ("run", "think", and "play" are all verbs). For more info on these, check out our series on nouns and verbs!
Nouns: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/parts-of-speech-the-noun
Verbs: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/parts-of-speech-the-verb(7 votes)
What if I say," I made dinner myself" is that correct?(4 votes)
Yes, “myself” would be an emphatic pronoun. You are emphasizing that you made the breakfast by yourself. This sentence would be usefull if someone thinks you never make dinner (which I never do).(11 votes)
- why is this relevant for my future or studies.(3 votes)
You ask, "why?", so I'll offer a response. It is relevant because you may well, in your future and/or in your studies, encounter writing that includes the use of emphatic pronouns, and knowing them, you'll be better able to ascertain the writer's intent, and less liable to misunderstand same. You don't have to USE this, but you need, for your future, for your studies, and for your future studies, to understand it when you see it.(7 votes)
Is it like every word with "self" is an emphasis?(3 votes)- No, that's not how it is.
The pronouns myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves and themselves are not, at their base, emphatic pronouns. BUT one of the uses of these very same words is as emphatic pronouns.
Compare:
(Emphatic use). She, herself, received the prize.
(non-emphatic use) She gave herself a pat on the back.(7 votes)
I still don't understand emphatic pronouns. For example, I found myself dancing around. Would it be needed or not needed? I think it would be not need but I am not sure of myself though.(3 votes)- Perhaps you need to differentiate "emphatic" from "reflexive" pronouns, which is found in their function (rather than their spelling).
Here's an example:
I touched myself. ("Myself" is a reflexive pronoun.)
I, myself, touched the live wire. ("Myself" is an emphatic pronoun.)
You hate yourself. ("yourself" is a reflexive pronoun.)
You, yourself, hate lima beans. (yourself is an emphatic pronoun.)(5 votes)
- Would the word "do" count as an emphatic pronoun? For example, "I do watch the videos you sent me!"
Like, isn't the word "do" kind of giving emphasis to the sentence?(5 votes) 
Hello everyone I'm new-ish to khan Academy but anyway Hi!(5 votes)
Would saying "I myself will do it," or "I myself heard it," or "The princess will run the marathon herself," be correct?(2 votes)- I, myself, will do it.
I, myself, heard it.
The princess, herself, will run the marathon.
The princess will run the marathon herself.
The princess will run the marathon by herself.(6 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Alright, grammarians. So we know that there's one way to use this thing we
call reflexive pronouns and that's to say you're
doing something to yourself, as in the sentence I made myself breakfast. Right, I'm making myself breakfast. Or in the sentence Ronaldo cut himself shaving. Sorry about the capital S
there, that is a mistake. So Ronaldo and himself and I and myself. We use, these are called
reflexive pronouns and we use them when the subject and the object of a sentence
is the same thing, right, but there's another way to
use these reflexive pronouns and it's called emphatic usage. So I want you to imagine
me storming off in a huff or getting really excited
as I say the following: Well, if you won't help
me, I'll do it myself! Or, he's lying, I heard it myself. Or, the princess herself is
running the charity marathon. And what this is is what we
call emphatic or intensive because we use it to intensify a statement or to grant it emphasis, right? This is how it works. So instead of just saying... and the difference, the key
difference, between reflexive and intensive or emphatic
usage of this kind of pronoun is you could take these
right out of a sentence and it would still make sense. I'll do it, I heard it, the
princess will run the marathon. Right, we're using them as intensifiers which really means they can come right out. They're not essential to the
understanding of the sentence, you're just using these words in order to hammer home a point. You know, if someone
else isn't helping you you say I'll do it, but you wanna really hammer home the fact that you're going to be
doing it alone so you say I'll do it myself. And if you wanna emphasize
that you were there and you heard something
happen you would say I heard it myself. And if it's really crazy that the princess is running this
marathon then you would say whoa, the princess herself
will be there, and that's nuts. And that's the intensive
or emphatic pronoun. That's how you use it. You can learn anything. David out.