What Reflexive Pronouns Do

A reflexive pronoun points the action of a verb back at the subject — the person doing the action and the person receiving it are the same. With plural subjects, you'll use yourselves (for "you" addressing more than one person) and themselves (for "they" or any third-person plural noun).

The core rule is simple: use a reflexive pronoun when the subject and the object refer to the same people.

✅ The children dressed themselves without any help. ❌ The children dressed them without any help.

In the wrong version, "them" sounds like the children dressed some other people. "Themselves" makes it clear: they did it to their own bodies.

✅ You'll have to teach yourselves — there's no instructor this week. ❌ You'll have to teach you — there's no instructor this week.

Again, "yourselves" closes the loop: the group both teaches and learns.

When to Use Them — and When Not To

Reflexive pronouns are required after verbs where the subject acts on itself: cut themselves, introduce yourselves, blame themselves, hurt yourselves. Drop the reflexive pronoun and the sentence either changes meaning or stops making sense.

They are not needed with verbs that are naturally self-directed in English. Unlike many other languages, English does not say they washed themselves or they sat themselves down in everyday speech — just they washed and they sat down. Adding a reflexive pronoun here sounds heavy or old-fashioned unless you want special emphasis.

✅ The guests helped themselves to the buffet. ✅ The players warmed up before the match. (no reflexive needed) ❌ The players warmed up themselves before the match. (sounds unnatural)

Intensive (Emphatic) Uses

Here's where learners get surprised: themselves and yourselves can also work as intensifiers, adding emphasis rather than reflecting the action. In this use, the pronoun usually sits right after the noun it stresses, or at the end of the clause, and you could remove it without breaking the grammar.

✅ The managers themselves admitted the policy was unfair.

This doesn't mean the managers did something to their own bodies. It means even the managers — the very people you wouldn't expect — admitted it. The pronoun intensifies.

✅ You can ask the neighbours, or you could fix the fence yourselves.

Here "yourselves" stresses that you would do it personally, with no outside help. It's still grammatically optional — you could fix the fence is a complete sentence — but the emphasis changes the message.

A quick test: if you can replace the pronoun with the word "personally" or "even," it's intensive, not reflexive.

Common Mistakes to Watch For

1. Mixing up "themselves" with the non-standard form "theirselves." You may hear theirselves in informal speech, but it is not accepted in standard written English.

✅ They organized the event themselves. ❌ They organized the event theirselves.

2. Using "yourselves" when speaking to one person. "Yourselves" is plural. For a single person, the correct form is yourself.

✅ (to one friend) Make yourself comfortable. ❌ (to one friend) Make yourselves comfortable.

3. Dropping the reflexive where meaning depends on it. Some verbs genuinely need the reflexive pronoun or the sentence changes meaning entirely. Compare:

✅ They found themselves lost in the old town. (they realized they were lost) ❌ They found lost in the old town. (incomplete — found what?)

4. Forcing a reflexive pronoun after prepositions when a regular pronoun is correct. After prepositions that don't loop back to the subject, use an ordinary pronoun:

✅ The teacher stood behind them. (the teacher ≠ them) ❌ The teacher stood behind themselves. (wrong — different people)

Keep the test in mind: same person doing and receiving → reflexive; different people → regular pronoun. That single check will prevent most errors with yourselves and themselves, whether you're using them reflexively or for emphasis.