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Yourself vs Themself - What's the difference?

yourself | themself |

As pronouns the difference between yourself and themself

is that yourself is (reflexive) your own self (singular) while themself is the single person previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis).

As a noun yourself

is your usual, normal, or true self.

yourself

English

Pronoun

  • (reflexive) Your own self (singular).
    • Be careful with that fire or you'll burn yourself .
  • You (singular); .
    • You yourself know that what you wrote was wrong.

    See also

    (English personal pronouns)

    Noun

    (yourselves)
  • Your usual, normal, or true self.
    • After a good night's sleep you'll feel like yourself again.

    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