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"Stay there itself, I'll be there in 10 minutes."

Is the emphatic pronoun (itself) in the above structure felicitous and grammatically used?
If not, what other word would be appropriate there?

Context: My friend was waiting for me in the play-ground. He called me and asked to come to the play-ground and that was how I replied.

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Itself cannot be used to emphasize there. Itself is used this way with nouns and pronouns, but there is not a pronoun. It is a pro-locative: what it stands for is not a place but an expression such as a preposition phrase which locates something at that place.

What you should have said is

Stay right there, I'll be there in ten minutes.

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  • What if I tell, "You stay there itself, I'll be there in ten minutes." using a pronoun? @ StoneyB. – Karanjeet Kaur Jul 23 '15 at 11:54
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    @KaranjeetKaur No. A -self word modifies the noun or pronoun which comes immediately before it; in your new sentence it itself can only be understood to modify there, which is unacceptable. You could say "Stay on the playground itself*, and that would be acceptable; you would be understood to mean actually on the playground, not somewhere near it. Right is the emphatic/intensive word to use with locatives: "Stay right where you are". – StoneyB on hiatus Jul 23 '15 at 12:00
  • I'm kind of amazed you could even make sense out of this to tell what was really meant. – Nathan Tuggy Jul 23 '15 at 17:09
  • @NathanTuggy Ya gotta sorta squint at the question and ask yourself How might this have been taught to make OP *think this could be right?* – StoneyB on hiatus Jul 23 '15 at 18:04
  • @KaranjeetKaur Off-topic, but tell is a transitive verb and requires an object like "What if I tell someone" – Muhd Jul 23 '15 at 19:54

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