English Grammar Understanding the Basics

Do the following sentences seem strange to you?

1. John Smith saw John Smith in the mirror.

2. My friends were talking among my friends.

3. Sam's only cat was grooming Sam's only cat.

These sentences are strange because they're missing reflexive pronouns, those pronouns that end in -self or -selves. As you can see from the sentences below, we use reflexive pronouns whenever we refer to the same person or thing more than once in the same basic sentence. Sentences 1–3 should be stated like this:

1. 4. John Smith saw himself in the mirror.

2. 5. My best friends were talking among themselves.

3. 6. Sam's only cat was grooming herself.

Here are some more examples, first without and then with a reflexive pronoun.

1. 7a. The boy washed the boy.

2. 7b. The boy washed himself.

3. 8a. Tom and Harry watched Tom and Harry on the video.

4. 8b. Tom and Harry watched themselves on the video.

5. 9a. You can see you doing that.

6. 9b. You can see yourself doing that.

Notice that if we hear, for example, The boy washed the boy, without a reflexive pronoun, then we assume that someone's talking about two different boys. Similarly, the sentence He shaved him suggests that the person (a male) who did the shaving and the person (a male) who received the shaving are not the same. The reflexive pronoun lets the listener know that the speaker is referring to the same person or thing.