What is an Intensive Pronoun?
An intensive pronoun is a pronoun ending in -self or -selves and is used to emphasize the noun or pronoun to which it is referring. Intensive pronouns take the same forms as reflexive pronouns but are used differently.
Examples of Intensive Pronouns
Some examples of intensive pronouns would be the following: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves.
Gina herself organized the banquet.
Mitchell did the entire project himself.
I myself am a fan of mystery novels.
We painted the whole house ourselves.
When You Should Use Intensive Pronouns in Your Writing
The two most relevant reasons to use intensive pronouns in your writing are uniqueness and emphasis.
Uniqueness: Intensive pronouns indicate that an individual, distinctly different from others, is unique in some way.
The woman carried all of the heavy boxes herself in one trip.
Using “herself” in this sentence implies an element of being unique from others.
Emphasis: Use intensive pronouns in your writing when you want to emphasize something.
The boy himself solved the entire puzzle.
The intensive pronoun “himself” emphasizes the fact that it was only the boy who solved the puzzle, without help from any others.
Be sure not to confuse intensive pronouns with reflexive pronouns which take the same form but are used completely differently.
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