Question

What are the differences between personal, reflexive and intensive pronouns?

Answer 1

Hint: When we generally do not wish to repeat the same thing or person we describe about, or if we don’t want to repeat the subject then it means that we wish to replace those nouns. When we do this we make use of pronouns to carry out the task. The pronouns personal, reflexive and intensive are all found in each person’s places from first to third. Personal – particular thing, reflexive – reflecting to previous, intensive – emphasize previous terms

Complete answer:
In detail we can explain the personal, reflexive and intensive pronouns on their own;
- Personal pronouns are so called because they replace the person or thing it describes itself. All the personal pronouns look like this:
When in the First person – I, we, me, us
Then in the Second person – You
After that the Third person – he, him, her, she, they, it, them

- Reflexive pronouns are an adaptation of personal pronouns, but here they just refer back to that person or things. This comes into action when we have the same subject and object in the sentence for the verb performed. They are:
When in the First person – myself, ourselves
Then in the Second person – yourself, yourselves
After that the third person – himself, herself, itself, themselves

- Intensive pronouns are those that are used to give stress upon emphasis upon what was previously mentioned, mostly about the subject. They have the same list as reflexive pronouns since they too are a form of reflexive pronouns.

Using the personal, reflexive and intensive pronouns in sentences would look like;
Gaana came home last night, she forgot her luggage at the station. But then today morning she herself will go back to bring it. Gaana kept an alarm and woke up early by herself. [ Here ‘her’ in the first sentence is personal, ‘herself’ in the second sentence is intensive and ‘herself’ in the third sentence is reflexive].

Note: Some more facts to be remembered while incorporating reflexive pronouns into sentences.
- When a statement is clearly reflexive, there is no need to use a reflexive pronoun since it is quite obvious. On the other hand if it is not reflexive, we need to specify the pronoun, otherwise the meaning of the sentence will change. An example would be if a person is writing a letter to someone else then we cannot mention ‘to himself’ but it will be ‘to him’.
- Normally we do not use reflexive possessive pronouns.
- Sometimes when we use ‘by’ with a reflexive pronoun it would be with the subject’s reflexive. Example: They work …….., by themselves [ here they are the subject and themselves is the only pronoun that can come after ‘by’.]