54
votes
Accepted
"as rich as him", "as rich as he" or "as rich as he is"
What's happening in these sentences is that you are starting with an original idea like this:
I have never met a man who is as rich as he is rich.
That sentence sounds strange because we haven't ...
- 61.4k
26
votes
To take oneself's life is not an act of courage
In English we often have to use a reflexive pronoun when we have two noun phrases that refer to the same person in the same (immediate) clause. In this post, I use a small < i > to show that two ...
24
votes
Accepted
One should love everyone's wife. Is it right grammatically?
one should love everyone's wife
Well ... it is grammatically correct. However it does not mean what you think it should mean. What this says is that you (or someone) should love everyone else's ...
- 88.5k
20
votes
What is the meaning of ''cry oneself"?
He seemed almost ready to cry himself.
Himself here is not an argument of the verb; this is an emphatic use of the reflexive pronoun.
John Arable himself seemed almost ready to cry.
It serves ...
- 176k
15
votes
One should love everyone's wife. Is it right grammatically?
You are right grammatically both sentences are correct but they differ in meaning.
Suppose there are three persons in the context : a,b,c
With the sentence One should love one's wife, you are ...
- 326
13
votes
"as rich as him", "as rich as he" or "as rich as he is"
All three are OK, some purists will argue that the second is formally correct
I've never met a man as rich as he
The use of the personal pronoun ‘he’ sounds more refined to some ears, more "...
- 28.9k
13
votes
He has a sense of grandeur about <him> <himself>
If you look at some of the written instances of...
He had a sense of grandeur about him
...it should be reasonably clear that in most if not all of them, the primary point being made is that people ...
- 74.6k
12
votes
What is the meaning of ''cry oneself"?
The quote which caused confusion from Charlotte's Web:
A queer look came over John Arable's face. He seemed almost ready to cry himself
Reading the story in full context, another character besides ...
- 392
11
votes
"The house has a cat in it." — Why is "it" grammatical? Why is there not "itself" instead?
For what it’s worth, in itself would be acceptable with verbs that were more active. Thus
The AI system found a bug in itself.
There, using it would change the sentence’s meaning to be that the ...
- 11.3k
10
votes
Accepted
In many cases, the clothes people wear identify them/themselves as belonging to a particular social class
The first states that the clothes worn by people identify them (=the people wearing the clothes) as belonging to a social class. This makes sense. In some societies, people belong to social classes.
...
- 75.7k
9
votes
"Both the local authority and <myself> <me> <I> have gone to the minister." — Do all these pronouns work here?
The general rule is to use the same pronoun you would use if it were alone rather than part of a list.
So in the subject position, you use "Mary and I have gone", since you would say "I ...
- 4,545
7
votes
Does the verb 'to busy' require a reflexive pronoun?
Compare:Merriam -Webster
verb
Definition of busy
busied busying
transitive verb
: to make busy : occupy
The video game busied the child for hours
(The game kept the child busy)
You don't ...
- 7,125
7
votes
To take oneself's life is not an act of courage
You can't make it more reflexive than it already is because oneself is as reflexive as it can possibly be. It's a reflexive pronoun and it's called that for a reason. In very simple terms, reflexive ...
- 37.7k
7
votes
What is the difference between "He got himself injured" and "He got injured"?
This is an example of an intensive pronoun. Other articles on intensive pronouns: Grammarly, Grammar Monster.
"He got injured" does not describe how he was injured.
"He got himself ...
- 1,394
6
votes
Accepted
Did you hurt yourself?
It could mean either. Usually this sentence is used to ask about unintended self-harm. Like, you slipped with a power tool, you yelp, and a friend asks, "Did you hurt yourself?"
- 68.8k
5
votes
Does the verb 'to busy' require a reflexive pronoun?
V.V. is correct, you don't need a reflexive pronoun. It is both grammatical and idiomatic to say (something) busies (someone) to mean (the something) kept (the someone) busy. I write to add some ...
- 4,127
5
votes
One should love everyone's wife. Is it right grammatically?
(In light of the OP's recent edit)
Grammatically speaking, the sentence:
One should love everyone's wife
is perfectly acceptable.
It means it is a good idea if "you" (one) love the wives of ...
- 28.9k
5
votes
"as rich as him", "as rich as he" or "as rich as he is"
The "as ... as" construction is often used when you are comparing two people, things, or situations:
John is as rich as Jack.
An old woman with hair as white as snow.
Sometimes the second ...
- 8,989
5
votes
Accepted
That and those statements
Those are all correct statements, though most would not be used normally.
Can we say: That car is that that hit me yesterday?
You could say that but it's a bit awkward. You'd most likely see that ...
- 1,341
5
votes
Accepted
An inversion ???
The two VPs headed by abide and waive are conjoined by and; they have the same subject and modal auxiliary:
( abide by the law
... foreign diplomatic staff must -( ...
- 176k
5
votes
An inversion ???
However, the New Zealand government makes it clear foreign diplomatic
staff must [abide by the law] and [“waive immunity should MFAT request it
if there are allegations of serious crimes”].
The ...
- 17.3k
5
votes
Accepted
Is "Did they enjoy yourselves at the party?" correct?
"Did they enjoy yourselves .." is definitely wrong.
It should be either be "Did you enjoy yourselves.." OR "Did they enjoy themselves.."
- 733
5
votes
"I need a cup of tea to revive <me> <myself>"
There's no difference in meaning, and both forms are in common use...
At least a few of the non-reflexive matches will be preceded by a main clause whose subject is not the speaker (John poured a ...
- 74.6k
5
votes
"I need a cup of tea to revive <me> <myself>"
The two sentences look similar and have similar functions, but the grammar is quite different.
In the first sentence, the grammatical structure is [ "need" + object + "to" + base ...
- 51.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Grammar question: becoming overweight themselves
A reflexive pronoun can be used to give emphasis.
I locked the door myself. (Emphsises I locked the door, not someone else!)
The reflexive pronoun should match the subject.
In this participle ...
- 232k
5
votes
"The house has a cat in it." — Why is "it" grammatical? Why is there not "itself" instead?
The sentence (2) is incorrect. We use object pronouns (it), not reflexives (itself), after prepositions of place (in).
You may want to read this British Council article on reflexive pronouns.
- 606
5
votes
"The house has a cat in it." — Why is "it" grammatical? Why is there not "itself" instead?
We only use "itself" (or similar pronouns like "myself" and "yourself") when it's possible for the object of the verb or prepositional phrase to be something other than ...
- 4,545
4
votes
Accepted
How to understand "And with it went <something>"?
Both instances of it refer to the Soviet Union.
We understand implosion to entail the "departure" or "disappearance" of the USSR—when it went away, the network which it had maintained went away ...
- 176k
4
votes
When to use 'Their" vs "his or her"?
Their and his and her are essentially interchangeable. You could replace one, the other, or both at either point in the sentence and retain the meaning.
More to the point, you could eliminate both ...
- 267
4
votes
Accepted
"catch her train", Why do we use "her"?
In English, "possessive" forms (including the Saxon genitive 's as well as possessive pronouns) don't necessarily imply anything about "ownership".
OP's example is a perfectly natural usage that ...
- 74.6k
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