WEEK 10

Reflexive pronouns from hacersivil

The reflexive pronouns are:

Singular:	myself - yourself - himself - herself - itself
Plural:	ourselves - yourselves - themselves

When we use a reflexive pronoun

We use a reflexive pronoun:

• as a direct object when the object is the same as the subject of the verb:

I am teaching myself to play the piano.
Be careful with that knife. You might cut yourself.

We can use a reflexive pronoun as direct object with most transitive verbs, but these are the most common:

amuse	blame	cut	dry	enjoy	help
hurt	introduce	kill	prepare	satisfy	teach

Some verbs change their meaning slightly when they have a reflexive pronoun as direct object:

• Would you like to help yourself to another drink?
  = Would you like to take another drink.
• I wish the children would behave themselves.
   = I wish the children would behave well.
• He found himself lying by the side of the road.
  = He was surprised when he realised that he was at the side of the road.
• I saw myself as a famous actor.
  = I imagined that I was a famous actor.
• She applied herself to the job of mending the lights.
  = She worked very hard to mend the lights.
• He busied himself in the kitchen.
   = He worked busily in the kitchen.
• I had to content myself with a few Euros.
  = I had to be satisfied with a few Euros.

We do not use a reflexive pronoun after verbs which describe things people usually do for themselves, such as wash,shave, dress:

He washed [himself] in cold water.
He always shaved [himself] before going out in the evening.
Michael dressed [himself] and got ready for the party.

We only use reflexives with these verbs for emphasis:

He dressed himself in spite of his injuries.
She’s old enough to wash herself.

• as indirect object when the indirect object is the same as the subject of the verb:

Would you like to pour yourself a drink.
We’ve brought ourselves something to eat.

• as the object of a preposition when the object refers to the subject of the clause:

They had to cook for themselves.
He was feeling very sorry for himself.

Warning
But we use personal pronouns, not reflexives, after prepositions of place... He had a suitcase beside him. and after with when it means "accompanied by": She had a few friends with her.

We use a reflexive pronoun...

• with the preposition by when we want to show that someone did something alone and/or without any help:

He lived by himself in an enormous house.
She walked home by herself.

The children got dressed by themselves.
I prepared the whole meal by myself.

• to emphasise the person or thing we are referring to:

Kendal itself is quite a small town.

especially if we are talking about someone very famous:

Sir Paul McCartney himself sang the final song.

We often put the reflexive pronoun at the end of the clause when we are using it for emphasis:

I baked the bread myself.
She mended the car herself

Select the best alternative.

1. I am afraid there is nobody to help you. You will all have to do everything for …….
a. itself      b. yourselves      c. herself d. ……      e. themselves

2. Tom and Harry are good sports. They don’t mind making fools of ……
a. ourselves   b. themselves      c. yourself        d. itself     e. each other

3. I can recommend them. In fact, I have bought three ……
a. yourselves      b. each other c. ……      d. myself      e. yourself

4. I can’t feel …… anything.
a. himself b. herself c. ……         d. each other e. themselves

5. We will do most of the work ……
a. ourselves     b. yourself         c. herself          d. ……    e. myself

6. Help …… to anything you need, Simon.
a. yourselves      b. yourself         c. themselves d. herself e. ……

7. I am going to shave ……
a. yourself     b. …… c. itself d. herself e. each other

8. Sarah, I wish you would behave ……
a. yourselves b. yourself c. ourselves
d. myself e. themselves

9. Tom and Mary hate ……
a. himself      b. each other    c. herself  d. ourselves  e. themselves

10. My sister and I send e-mails to …… every week.

11. Lindsey and I have been writing regularly to …… for several years.

a. each other       b. ourselves        c. yourselves        d. ……        e. itself

12. I couldn’t treat you any better if you were the Queen of England ……

a. yourselves       b. himself       c. myself      d. themselves           e. herself

13. He really knows how to enjoy ……

a. themselves       b. yourselves       c. myself      d. himself      e. each other

14. I am too thirsty to think. I need to make …… a cup of tea before I do anything else.

a. yourselves      b. each other      c. myself        d. himself     e. themselves          

15. My dog cut …… on the shoulder when she was jumping the fence.

a. myself         b. itself                c. herself         d. ……           e. ourselves

16. John cut …… shaving.

a. itself            b. ourselves       c. himself         d. ……           e. yourselves

17. Welcome to both of you. I hope you will make …… at home.

a. yourselves      b. myself     c. themselves      d. each other        e. himself

18. When she saw how well she had done, the student gave …… a pat on the back.

a. yourself      b. ourselves        c. herself         d. ……          e. himself

19. This exercise by …… is not enough. You need to study more.

a. yourselves              b. itself                        c. each other             

d. yourself                  e. themselves

20. I feel dirty after the journey. I need to wash ……

a. themselves       b. himself       c. each other       d. ……      e. yourself

Key: 1.b  2.b  3.d  4.c  5.a  6.b  7.b  8.b  9.b  10.b  11.a  12.a  13.d  14.c  15.c  16.c  17.a  18.c  19.b  20.d



PASSIVE VOICE

Use of Passive

Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is performing the action.

Example: My bike was stolen.

In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know, however, who did it.

Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows:

Example: A mistake was made.

In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone (e.g. You have made a mistake.).

Form of Passive

Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle

Example: A letter was written.

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

• the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
• the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
• the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)

Passive Sentences with Two Objects 

Rewriting an active sentence with two objects in passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the subject, the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on what you want to put the focus on.

	Subject	Verb	Object 1	Object 2
Active:	Rita	wrote	a letter	to me.
Passive:	A letter	was written	to me	by Rita.
Passive:	I	was written	a letter	by Rita.

.

As you can see in the examples, adding by Rita does not sound very elegant. That’s why it is usually dropped.

Personal and Impersonal Passive

Personal Passive simply means that the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. So every verb that needs an object (transitive verb) can form a personal passive.

Example: They build houses. – Houses are built.

Verbs without an object (intransitive verb) normally cannot form a personal passive sentence (as there is no object that can become the subject of the passive sentence). If you want to use an intransitive verb in passive voice, you need an impersonal construction – therefore this passive is called Impersonal Passive.

Example: he says – it is said

Impersonal Passive is not as common in English as in some other languages (e.g. German, Latin). In English,Impersonal Passive is only possible with verbs of perception (e. g. say, think, know).

Example: They say that women live longer than men. – It is said that women live longer than men.

Although Impersonal Passive is possible here, Personal Passive is more common.

Example: They say that women live longer than men. – Women are said to live longer than men.

The subject of the subordinate clause (women) goes to the beginning of the sentence; the verb of perception is put into passive voice. The rest of the sentence is added using an infinitive construction with 'to' (certain auxiliary verbs and that are dropped).

Sometimes the term Personal Passive is used in English lessons if the indirect object of an active sentence is to become the subject of the passive sentence.

Exercise 1
Exercise 2

Dear All!
Above is the summary. Please check it so that you can revise Reflexive Pronouns and Passive Voice.
In Unit 8, we discussed some environmental issues using Passive Voice.

8a  Vocabulary:

A series of	absorb	artificial	Attack (n,v)
completion	criticism	decade	destruction
devastating	dust	expanding	habitat
intruder	loss	Man-made	Only time will tell
outcome	process	rate	Result in
scarce	Speed up	Traffic congestion	valuable

8b Vocabulary & Phrases:

Balanced diet	Blood pressure	Cut down on	Cut smt out (of a diet)
Dairy products	diabetes	End up	exclude
Fat (n)	fiber	Function (v)	grains
Immune system	In the long run	iron	Look into
Matter (n)	nutrients	nutritious	Obese-obesity
Point out	prevent	replace	Stick to
vegan	Vegetarianism don’t get me wrong

1- Complete your  Unit 8 in your WB
2- Complete 8 Review in your SB
3- Complete the handout you were given.
4- Read page 75, exercise E. Write a story. Remember to start the story as it is stated below. Don't forget to include a key and a forest. Stick to the TIP on page 75.

After walking around fr a few hours, I realized I was lost.......