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Oneself vs Themself - What's the difference?

oneself | themself |

As pronouns the difference between oneself and themself

is that oneself is the person, previously mentioned while themself is The reflexive case of they, the third-person singular personal pronoun. The single person previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition also used for emphasis.

oneself

English

Pronoun

  • The person, previously mentioned.
    • One can teach oneself to do this.
  • A person's self - a general form of himself, herself or yourself
    • Teaching oneself to swim can be dangerous.

    Usage notes

    This pronoun can be used for emphasis or to make a verb reflexive.

    Synonyms

    * one's self

    Derived terms

    * be oneself * by oneself

    See also

    (English personal pronouns)

    See also

    * * self English third person pronouns

    themself

    English

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • The single person previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis).
    • Someone could hurt themself .
    Anyone who wants a car like mine can buy one themself .
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2009 , date=January 8 , author=Samantha Maiden , title=Hoaxer, out yourself: 'Demidenko' , work=The Australian citation , passage=THE author who masqueraded as Helen Demidenko yesterday urged the hoaxer who deceived the respected right-wing journal Quadrant to unmask themself .}}

    Usage notes

    * The use of themself'' instead of ''themselves'' is sometimes proscribed,Carl W. Hart, ''Rocket English Grammar'' (2012, ISBN 1938690214), page 55 but it is relatively common "considering that singular ''they'' is unquestionably far less frequent than plural ''they''".''Grammar Without Grammaticality: Growth and Limits of Grammatical Precision'' (2013, ISBN 3110290014), page 56 Furthermore, the use of ''themself'' as a singular and ''themselves'' as a plural is in "clear parallel [to] common usage of the second-person forms, where ''yourselves'' can be contrasted with ''yourself''."Laura Paterson, ''British Pronoun Use, Prescription, and Processing (2014, ISBN 1137332735), page 170 * For more on the use of they as a singular pronoun, see they . * For information on the use of he'' and ''himself as a generic singular pronoun, see he .

    Synonyms

    * themselves (more common) * himself, herself (gender-specific) * thonself (rare) * other third-person pronouns

    References

    English disputed terms English plural pronouns English third person pronouns English words affected by prescriptivism