Emphatic Pronouns: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what emphatic pronouns are? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on emphatic pronouns, including the definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What is an emphatic pronoun?

According to Grammar Monster, emphatic pronouns are myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. These are compound personal pronouns used for emphasis. The use of emphatic pronouns is to emphasize a specific noun in a sentence. The noun being emphasized is called the antecedent of the emphatic pronoun. Rather than using italics or uppercase, using this type or pronoun in English grammar can intensify without seeming over the top. These can be used at the end of the sentence or right after the antecedent. There are many types of pronouns including simple pronouns, stress pronouns, an intensive pronoun, reflexive pronoun, a subject pronoun, and more sets of pronouns.

These also exist in the French language. According to BBC, these include the below:

  • moi – me – Il m’énerve, lui!,  Est pour moi.,  Il faut avoir confiance en soi.
  • toi – you – C’est and Ce sont – C’est toi, Simon? 
  • lui – him
  • elle – her
  • nous – us
  • vous – you
  • eux – them – masculine – Mon père et elle ne s’entendent pas.
  • elles – them – feminine

Many different languages also contain terms that mean emphatic. You may notice that many of these translations of emphatic from Word Sense look and sound similar to the term emphatic pronoun. These are called cognates, which are formed when two words have the same root or language of origin. 

  •  Turkish: vurgulu‎
  •  Portuguese: enfático‎
  •  Scottish Gaelic: làidir‎
  •  Czech: důrazný‎ (masc.)
  •  Romanian: emfatic‎
  •  Bulgarian: подчертан‎
  •  Greek: κατηγορηματικός‎
  •  Russian: вырази́тельный‎, эмфати́ческий‎, выделенный‎
  •  Dutch: nadrukkelijk‎, emfatisch‎
  •  Catalan: emfàtic‎
  •  Spanish: enfático‎
  •  Swedish: emfatisk‎
  •  French: emphatique‎ (masc.) (f)

What are examples of emphatic pronouns?

An emphatic pronoun can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or literary technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! The following sentences are examples of emphatic pronouns from Grammar Monster and Toppr that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Try to use the term emphatic pronouns today or notice when someone else is using a emphatic pronoun.

  •  They themselves saw it.
  •  You yourself can tell us about the situation.
  •  They themselves prefer to stay at home.
  •  She herself told us the news that John knew the correct answer.
  •  The Queen herself attended the party.
  •  She herself informed me. 
  •  Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn’t have to do it himself. (“Weiler’s Law” by American writer AH Weiler)
  •  The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but raptors are pretty dang scary.
  •  She will attend the reception drinks herself.
  •  You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself. (American journalist Sam Levenson)
  •  Alice will do it herself.
  •  I heard the lie myself.
  •  The scouts cooked these cakes themselves.
  •  We saw the President himself.
  •  She will do her homework herself with help from nobody else.
  •  The city itself does not receive much rainfall.
  •  We will watch the show ourselves.
  •  The cat opened the door itself. 
  •  I myself will complete the tasks.
  •  He will go to the store himself while his mother is under the weather.

What are other grammatical terms and devices?

There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you. 

  • cognate object
  •  adjective
  •  direct speech
  •  definite article
  •  bare infinitive
  •  infinitive
  •  non-referential
  •  agent noun
  •  objective
  •  direct question
  •  auxiliary verb | auxiliary
  •  pro-form
  •  pleonasm | pleonastic
  •  singular
  •  subjective
  •  anaphoric
  •  second person
  •  genitive
  •  protasis
  •  stem
  •  gender
  •  determiner
  •  inflection | inflected | inflectional
  •  agree | agreement
  •  accusative
  •  indirect question
  •  conjunction (conj.)
  •  copular verb | copula
  •  quasi-
  •  parenthetical | parenthetically
  •  first person
  •  imperative (imper.)
  •  subordinate clause
  •  complement
  •  superlative
  •  periphrasis | periphrastic
  •  filler
  •  noun (n.)
  •  attributive
  •  simple
  •  main clause
  •  premodify | premodifier
  •  mass noun
  •  indirect object
  •  third-person
  •  non-finite
  •  optative
  •  preposition (prep.)
  •  prepositional passive
  •  personal pronoun
  •  present participle
  •  combining form (comb. form)
  •  verb (v.)
  •  morpheme
  •  indirect speech
  •  past participle
  •  progressive
  •  zero
  •  neuter
  •  mood
  •  dative
  •  relative
  •  finite
  •  nominative
  •  masculine
  •  complementary
  •  possessive
  •  demonstrative
  •  declarative
  •  nominal relative | nominal relative clause
  •  collocation | collocate
  •  past tense
  •  modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
  •  person
  •  ellipsis | elliptical
  •  subjunctive
  •  interjection
  •  verbal noun
  •  part of speech
  •  head
  •  element
  •  construed (const., constr.)
  •  active
  •  construction
  •  feminine
  •  cataphoric
  •  clause
  •  adverbial | adverbially
  •  present tense
  •  apodosis and protasis
  •  vocative
  •  that-clause
  •  dual
  •  main verb
  •  unmarked genitive
  •  passive infinitive
  •  modify | modifier
  •  collective noun
  •  causative
  •  suffix
  •  parasynthetic
  •  tense
  •  intensifier
  •  prepositional object
  •  combination
  •  participle | past participle | present participle
  •  predicative
  •  plural
  •  passive
  •  conditional
  •  subject
  •  number
  •  sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
  •  article
  •  locative
  •  special use
  •  appositive
  •  noun phrase
  •  possessive pronouns | proper name
  •  anticipatory
  •  object | direct object | indirect object
  •  indicative
  •  base form
  •  similative
  •  phrase (phr.)
  •  double object
  •  absolute (absol.)
  •  comparative
  •  impersonal (impers.)
  •  case
  •  abstract
  •  concrete
  •  perfect
  •  participial adjective
  •   count noun
  •  pronoun (pron.)
  •  prefix
  •  phrasal verb
  •  common noun
  •  reflexive
  •  apposition
  •  prepositional phrase
  •  indefinite
  •  possessive pronoun
  •  postmodify | postmodifier
  •  instrumental
  •  intransitive
  •  antecedent
  •  adverb (adv.)
  •  compound | compounding
  •  positive
  •  interrogative
  •  possessive adjective
  •  to-infinitive
  •  direct object
  •  indirect passive
  •  transitive

Overall, emphatic pronouns are compound personal pronouns used for emphasis.

Sources:

  1. Glossary of Grammatical Terms | OED
  2. Emphatic Pronouns | What Are Emphatic Pronouns? | Grammar Monster 
  3. What are stressed pronouns? – Stressed pronouns – moi, toi, lui – GCSE French Revision 
  4. Reflexive and Emphatic Pronouns | Definition, Examples, Diagrams | Toppr 
  5. emphatic: meaning, origin, translation | Word Sense