What is the difference between reflexive and intensive pronouns?
Reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns are identical in spelling and pronunciation: they’re the words ending in -self or -selves (e.g., “myself,” “themselves”). But they play different grammatical roles:
- Reflexive pronouns serve as the object of a transitive verb when the object is the same person or thing as the subject (e.g., “I believe in myself”).
- Intensive pronouns are used in combination with another noun or pronoun to place special emphasis on it (“I myself wrote the code”).