Reflexive pronouns reflect back to the subject of a sentence. The English reflexive pronouns are: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. Each one can only be used with its personal pronoun counterpart when that personal pronoun is the subject of the sentence:
| Personal Pronoun | Reflexive Pronoun | A Sample Sentence |
| I | myself | I hurt myself again. |
| you | yourself | You can do it yourself. |
| he | himself | He enjoyed himself. |
| she | herself | She helped herself to some candy. |
| it | itself | It destroyed itself in a few seconds. |
| we | ourselves | We found ourselves in a strange city. |
| you | yourselves | You must clean yourselves up before dinner. |
| they | themselves | They accidentally burned themselves. |
If the reflexive pronoun and the personal pronoun are not counterparts, then personal pronouns should be used in the sentence. Look at these examples:
| Counterparts | Not Counterparts |
| I hurt myself again. | I hurt him again. I hurt them again. |
| He enjoyed himself. | He enjoyed it. He enjoyed them. |
| They harmed themselves. | They harmed me. They harmed her. |
Remember that third-person singular and plural nouns will use the appropriate third-person singular and plural reflexive pronouns:
- Marta bought herself a new car.
- The boy cut himself.
- The alien creature wounded itself with its own claws.
- The men helped themselves to some beer.