Reflexive and Emphatic pronouns

Reflexive pronouns and emphatic pronouns look alike. They either end in –self, as in the singular form, or –selves as in the plural form.

The singular reflexive/ emphatic pronouns are:

Myself

Yourself

Himself, herself, itself

Plural reflexive pronouns include:

Ourselves

Yourselves

Themselves

Reflexive pronouns are pronouns that refer back to the subject of the sentence or clause.

E.g.,

He fell down and hurt himself.

I e-mailed myself a copy of the article.

Kumar blames himself .

If we write without ‘self’, the pronouns will not refer back to the doer of the action. They will refer to somebody else.

E.g.,

He hurt me.

I e-mailed you a copy of the article.

Kumar blames her.

Emphatic pronouns

When reflexive pronouns are used to put emphasis on a particular noun they are called emphatic pronouns.

E.g.,

She herself told me this.

I finished the job myself.

We ourselves cooked dinner.

* The emphatic pronouns cannot be used as subjects. It is therefore wrong to say:

Shekhar and myself went there.

I invited herself to tea.

The correct form will be:

Shekhar and I went there.

I invited her to tea.

Difference between reflective and emphatic pronouns:

A pronoun is a reflexive one if the action of the subject reflects upon the doer.

E.g.,

He cut himself. (Reflexive: here the subject and object refer to the same person.)

Emphatic pronouns, on the other hand, are used to just emphasize the action of the subject.

E.g.,

He himself cut the cake. ( He cut the cake-not anybody else.)

I spoke to the principal myself. (Emphatic)

But,

You must blame yourself for the loss. (Reflexive – the subject and the object are the same).

* An emphatic pronoun can be removed from the sentence and the core meaning would not be affected.

E.g.,

I myself opened the door.

I opened the door.

A reflexive pronoun, on the other hand, is indispensable. The sentence wouldn’t make complete sense if you remove the reflexive pronoun.

E.g.,

She cut herself.

If you remove herself, what remains, will not make sense.

She cut…… what?

·       Some use ‘itself’ along with the pronouns in order to give emphasis.

E.g.,

You  itself teach me.

He itself wants to go there.

But that is not the way. It should be:

You yourself teach me.

He himself wants to go there.

                                                          ***

It is high time…. / It is time….

There is a confusion in the use of ‘It is high time’ and ‘It is time’ The former is used when we wish to state that  something should have been done long back. It is already a bit late.

So, ‘high time’ is always followed by the past tense form of the verb.

E.g.,

It is high time you started preparing for the examinations. ( You should have started long back; start at least now.)

It is high time Anu took her responsibilities seriously.

On the other hand,

‘It is time to’  is used to indicate that it is the right time to do something.

E.g.,

It is time to wind up the meeting.

It is time to pack our things.

It is time to start cooking. 

Possible and probable

Possibility:

·       Possible – means-it has the potential or the power. It refers to what can be done, what can occur or what can be true.

E.g.,

Will it be possible for you to come and see me tomorrow? ( Can you come and see me tomorrow?)

·       Probable refers to what is likely to be done, to occur, or to be true.

*When we say something is probable, we are more confident about its happening, than when we say something is possible.

·       We also use could, might and may to show that something is possible in the future, but not certain.

E.g.,

We may go to a movie tomorrow.

They might buy that house.

If we don’t hurry, we could miss the train.

Probability:

·       We use must / should  to show that we are sure that something is true and we have reasons for our belief:

E.g.,

It must be a good movie. The reviews are good.

He should know. He was there when the accident occurred.

·       We use must have/ should have  for the past:

E.g.,

She must have passed the examination. She looks quite happy.

It's nearly eleven o'clock. They should have arrived  by now.

May have, might have, must have

·       May have and might have are used when we wish to state that something has possibly happened now or sometime ago.

E.g.,

The bride groom’s party might have arrived by now. ( Perhaps they have arrived.)

They may have given the advance for the flat.( Perhaps they gave the advance, long back).

·       Must have is used to express a probability in the past.

E.g.,

Geetha must have taken the umbrella.

The thief must have escaped  through that window.

Now, go through the following sentences:

·       They could have easily solved the problem. (It was possible for them but they did not do so).

·       They will have finished writing the examination by now.

·       I thought you would have informed your parents about this.

·       You should have been more careful.( You were not and so you are in trouble now.)

·       Nilesh may have repaid the loans.( Perhaps he repaid them long back).

·       Meena is not at home now. She might have taken her child to the music class. ( Perhaps she has)

·       Don’t worry about your cell phone. Your mother must have kept it safe.(It is quite probable that she has)

*We will discuss the difference between ‘possible’ and ‘probable’ in the next post.

Could have, will have, would have, should have +past participle

·       Could have  is used when we want to indicate that there was a possibility for something to happen, but it did not happen.

E.g.,

I could have studied better. ( But I did not.)

You could have attended the wedding. ( But you did not.)

·       Will have is used when we are looking back from a point in time,  when something will have happened.

E.g.,

Suresh will have reached home by now.

The over-bridge work will have been completed by 2014.

·       Would have  is used as the past tense of  will have.

E.g.,

I knew that my sister would have finished cooking by 1 p.m.

I did not want to go to my brother’s house at this time. He would have gone to sleep.

·       Would have  is also used for past conditionals.

E.g.,

If you had studied better, you would have scored higher marks.( You did not study; you did not get the marks).

If she had started earlier, she would not have missed the train. ( She started late and missed the train.)

Note:

Some people wrongly use would have instead of had.

If you would have asked me, I would have given you the money.

It should be…..

If you had asked me, I would have given you the money.

·       Should is used to indicate that doing something is a good idea.

E.g.,

You should buy this book. It is very useful.

Imagine that you did not buy the book. When you went to the shop the next day to buy it, it had been sold out. What do you say, then?

I should have bought the book yesterday.

More examples:

You should have listened to my advice.

We should have booked the tickets earlier.

( *Some more will follow. I don’t want to give too much in one go.)

Hope /expect/ think

I find there is some confusion in the use of the above three words.

People especially use hope in the place of think.

When we use hope, there is a wish that it should be so.

E.g.,

We hope to reach there before 5 p.m.

( We wish to reach there before 5. p.m. Hopefully, it will happen).

But, think does not have any such connotation.

E.g.,

I think we will reach there before 5. p.m.

( Given the present circumstances, we should be there by 5. p.m. What we wish does not matter. It is just a statement.)

Also, note that there is a slight difference in the usage of expect and think.

Expect is more reliable. You expect certain things because you have either factual proof or previous experience.

E.g.,

We are driving quite fast. The road is very good. There is no traffic. We expect to be there by 5 p.m.

Now go through the three sentences below.

I hope you will do well in the examination. ( I wish it so).

I think you will do well in the examination. ( I am almost sure).

I expect you to do well in the examination. ( I know you. You are a studious person. You have to do well.)

*I hope I have made it clear.

Spot the errors and correct them:-1

1.           I have to buy any articles from the market.

2.           I will not eat something.

3.           Little tact would have avoided the embarrassment.

4.           No less than fifty roses were brought.

5.           I want little milk.

6.           She has started leading a luxurious life after her marriage.

7.           Good begun is half-done.

8.           All is good that ends good.

9.           He has always been the dearer of all the nephews.

10.      The flowers smell sweetly.

11.      He looks very smartly in her uniform.

12.      She is the kindest of the two girls.

13.      This is the eldest monument in India.

14.      Is your uncle older to your mother?

15.      A little further down, you will see a turn.

16.      Let us not discuss it farther.

17.      He is the most ablest employer we have.

18.      My boss is senior than me by five years.

19.      Somesh is junior than me.

20.      The quality of this blanket is inferior than that.

21.      I prefer pizza than pasta.

22.      Have you met the eldest woman of this village?

23.      My car is longer to yours.

24.    This is the best of the two options available.

25.    Lakshmi and kamakshi are sisters. The later is elder to Lakshmi.

The Key

1.     ‘a few’ instead of ‘any’

2.     ‘anything’ instead of ‘something’ ( ‘anything’ is used for interrogatives and negatives)

3.     ‘a little’ instead of ‘little’ (‘a little’ means ‘some’. ‘Little’ means almost nothing)

4.     ‘not less’ instead of ‘ No less’

5.     ‘a little’ instead of ‘little’

6.     ‘wedding’ instead of ‘marriage’ (‘Marriage is a long term relationship. Wedding is the ceremony of getting married.)

7.     ‘Well-begun’ instead of ‘good begun’.

8.     ‘well’ instead of ‘good’ in both places.

9.     ‘the dearest’ instead of ‘the dearer’.

10.        ‘sweet’ instead of ‘sweetly’.

11.       ‘smart’ instead of ‘smartly’

12.       ‘the kinder’ instead of ‘the kindest’ ( Though, usually, the superlative form of the adjective comes after ‘the’, when there are only two objects, there is no possibility for a superlative. Hence, only comparative degree is used.)

13.       ‘oldest’ instead of ‘eldest’. ( elder, eldest, etc., are used when it concerns members of the same family. However, we can refer to an old man of the village, as the ‘village elder’.

14.       ‘elder’ instead of ‘older’

15.       ‘farther’ in stead of ‘further’. (‘farther’ means ‘to a greater distance’)

16.       ‘further’ in stead of  ‘farther’ ( ‘further’ means ‘to a greater extent, more, additional)

17.       ‘ablest’ in stead of  ‘most ablest’ ( Two superlatives will not occur together)

18.       ‘to’ in stead of ‘than’

19.       ‘to’ in stead of ‘than’

20.       ‘to’ in stead of ‘than’

21.       ‘to’ in stead of ‘than’

22.       ‘oldest’ in stead of ‘eldest’

23.       ‘than’ in stead of ‘to’

24.       ‘better’ in stead of ‘best’

25.       ‘latter’ in stead of ‘later’ (‘latter’ means the one mentioned second. ‘former’ is one mentioned first).

Adjectives connected with our body parts

Here are a few adjectives connected with our body parts:

1.            Arm-Brachial

2.            Back-Dorsal

3.            Body-Corporeal/Corporal

4.            Brain-Cerebral

5.            Chest-Pectoral

6.            Ear-Aural

7.            Eye-Ocular

8.            Finger-Digital

9.            Foot-Pedal

10.       Hand-Manual

11.       Head-Cephalic

12.       Heart-Cardiac

13.       Leg-Crural

14.       Lung-Pulmonary

15.       Mind-Mental

16.       Mouth-Oral

17.       Nerve-Neural

18.       Nose-Nasal

19.       Skin-Dermal

20.       Skull-Cranial

21.       Stomach-Gastric

22.       Thigh-Femoral

23.       Tongue-Lingual

24.       Tooth-Dental

*From where did the words, ‘guy’ and ‘chap’ originate?