Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are forms of personal pronouns that end in –self or –selves:

• myself
• yourself
• himself
• herself
• itself
• oneself
• ourselves
• yourselves
• themselves

You can use a reflexive pronoun as the object of a verb or preposition to refer back to the subject of the sentence or clause Here are a few examples:

She checked herself out of the hotel thirty minutes before checkout time.

Lola made herself a smoothie to bring to class.

Take care of yourselves.

In the third example above, the antecedent is the implied you that is the subject of an imperative sentence.

Using myself when you mean me is a common mistake writers and speakers make. Reflexive pronouns are correct only when the subject and object of a verb are the same. If you’re using a pronoun as an object but it refers to an antecedent that is not the subject of the sentence or clause, you use an object pronoun instead:

He asked myself to go for a bike ride.

He asked me to go for a bike ride.

I had promised myself I would accept more invitations.