Question

Fill in the blank with a suitable pronoun:
The king_______ gave the awards to the children.
a) Himself
b) Themselves
c) Myself
d) Yourself

Answer 1

Hint: A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun when the same noun is referred to many times in a context.
Male – He, himself
Female – She, herself
Thing/Object – It, itself
Plurals – They, themselves
Pronouns are of different types –
1. Personal (I, we, you, he, she, it, they)
2. Demonstrative (this, these, that, those)
3. Relative (who, which, that, as),
4. Indefinite (each, all, everyone, either, one, both, any, such, somebody)
5. Interrogative (who, which, what)
6. Reflexive (myself, herself)
7. Possessive (mine, yours, his, hers, theirs)

Complete Solution:
Option a ‘Himself’ is the correct option. Himself is a compound personal pronoun which represents a man in the third person or singular number or masculine gender. The king is a male/ masculine gender and himself conforms with it. So, option a is the correct option.
Option b ‘Themselves’ is the incorrect option. ‘Themselves’ is used for the plural nouns and the subject here is singular. So, this option doesn’t agree with the subject and hence is wrong.
Option c ‘Myself’ is a pronoun that is used for the subject in the first person and the subject in the given statement is in the third person. The demand isn’t fulfilled and neither is the meaning coherent. So, this option is incorrect.
Option d ‘Yourself’ is used in the second person and the given subject is in the third person. Hence, option d is also incorrect.

Note: A pronoun must agree with its predecessor, or the noun or pronoun which it illustrates, in person, number, and gender.