Intensive Pronouns: What It Is and How To Use It

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

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What is an intensive pronoun?

According to Word Sense, there are many different types of pronouns with different functions:

  •  possessive pronoun
  •  reciprocal pronoun
  •  determinative pronoun
  •  epicene pronoun
  •  pronoun demonstrative
  •  gender-neutral pronoun
  •  emphasizing pronoun
  •  demonstrative pronoun
  •  interrogative pronoun
  •  resumptive pronoun
  •  adjectival pronoun
  •  object pronoun
  •  prepositional pronoun
  •  reflexive possessive pronoun
  •  personal pronoun
  •  indefinite pronoun
  •  relative pronoun
  •  substantive pronoun
  •  reflexive pronoun
  •  subject pronoun
  •  adjective pronoun
  •  substantival pronoun
  •  intensive pronoun
  •  personal subject pronouns

Today we will explore the intensive pronoun. According to Your Dictionary, an intensive pronoun or emphatic pronoun is a type of pronoun that will further emphasize, or intensify, nouns and pronouns. These come immediately after the noun they’re intensifying oftentimes. The intensive pronouns are the following list of intensive pronouns: herself, himself, itself, myself, ourselves, themselves, themself, yourself, and yourselves. Make sure that you use the correct pronouns, whether it is a singular pronoun or plural pronoun depending on the subject of the verb. English intensive pronouns are a fun way to add special emphasis to the sentence’s subject or object of the verb. 

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

  •  Tatar: алмашлык‎
  •  Telugu: సర్వనామము‎
  •  Erzya: таркасвал‎
  •  Persian: ضمیر‎ (zamir), پیشنام‎ (pišnâm)
  •  Scottish Gaelic: riochdair‎
  •  Vietnamese: đại từ‎ (代詞‎)
  •  Hungarian: névmás‎
  •  Basque: izenordain‎
  •  Macedonian: заменка‎ (fem.)
  •  Irish: forainm‎ (masc.)
  •  Crimean Tatar: zamir‎
  •  Dutch: voornaamwoord‎ (neut.)
  •  Finnish: asemo‎, pronomini‎
  •  Bashkir: алмаш‎
  •  Bishnupriya Manipuri:
  •  Interlingua: pronomine‎
  •  Quechua: sutip rantin‎, sutiranti‎
  •  Mongolian: төлөөний нэр‎
  •  Galician: pronome‎
  •  Scots: pronoun‎
  •  Italian: pronome‎ (masc.)
  •  Japanese: 代名詞‎ (だいめいし, daimeishi)
  •  Indonesian: pronomina‎
  •  Maltese: pronom‎ (masc.)
  •  Northern Sami: pronomen‎
  •  Kyrgyz: жактама‎
  •  Hindi: सर्वनाम‎
  •  Occitan: pronom‎ (masc.)
  •  Burmese: နာမ်စား‎
  •  Kumyk: орунча‎ (orunça)
  •  Lingala: likitana‎
  •  Kalmyk: орч нерн‎
  •  Swedish: pronomen‎ (neut.)
  •  Faroese: fornavn‎ (neut.)
  •  Danish: pronomen‎, stedord‎
  •  Catalan: pronom‎ (masc.)
  •  Old English: bīnama‎ (masc.)
  •  Czech: zájmeno‎ (neut.)
  •  Novial: pronomine‎
  •  West Frisian: foarnamwurd‎ (neut.)
  •  Low German: pronomen‎
  •  Afrikaans: voornaamwoord‎
  •  Georgian: ნაცვალსახელი‎
  •  Turkmen: çalyşma‎
  •  Southern Altai: солума‎ (soluma)
  •  Chuvash: местоимени‎
  •  Sicilian: prunomu‎ (masc.)
  •  Urdu: ضمیر‎
  •  Tamil: பெயர்ச்சொல்‎
  •  Norman: pronom‎ (masc.)
  •  Lao: ສັບພະນາມ‎
  •  Malay: kata ganti diri‎
  •  Romanian: pronume‎ (neut.)
  •  Malayalam: സര്‍വ്വനാമം‎
  •  Ossetian: номивӕг‎
  •  Turkish: zamir‎
  •  Waray-Waray: imbesngaran‎, taligngaran‎, talingaran‎, talingáran‎
  •  Yiddish: פּראָנאָם‎
  •  Khmer: សព្វនាម‎ (sɑp niem)
  •  Slovak: zámeno‎ (neut.)
  •  Volapük: pönop‎
  •  Albanian: përemri‎ (masc.)
  •  Arabic: ضَمِير‎ (masc.)
  •  Ukrainian: займе́нник‎ (masc.)
  •  Korean: 대명사‎ (代名詞‎)
  •  Swahili: dhamiri‎, kijina‎, kiwakilishi‎, kitenzi jina‎
  •  Hebrew: כינוי גוף‎
  •  Ewe: nuŋkɔteƒenɔnya‎
  •  Slovene: zaímek‎ (masc.)
  •  Chechen: цӏерметдош
  •  Zazaki: zemir‎, pesname‎, pesname‎, pesname‎
  •  Franco-Provençal:
  •  Armenian: դերանուն‎
  •  Greek: αντωνυμία‎ (fem.)
  •  Estonian: asesõna‎, pronoomen‎
  •  German: Fürwort‎ (neut.), Personwort‎ (neut.), Personenwort‎ (neut.), Pronomen‎ (neut.), Pronom‎ (neut.)
  •  Belarusian: займе́ннік‎ (masc.)
  •  Welsh: rhagenw‎ (masc.)
  •  Latin: prōnōmen‎ (neut.), prōvocābulum‎
  •  Nahuatl: tlācatōcāitl‎
  •  Thai: สรรพนาม‎
  •  Walloon: prono‎
  •  Bulgarian: местоиме́ние‎ (neut.)
  •  Polish: zaimek‎ (masc.)
  •  French: pronom‎ (masc.)
  •  Ido: pronomo‎
  •  Latvian: vietniekvārds‎ (masc.)
  •  Chamorro: klå’an‎
  •  Esperanto: pronomo‎
  •  Tajik: ҷонишин‎, замир‍‎
  •  Kazakh: есімдік‎
  •  Portuguese: pronome‎ (masc.)
  •  Asturian: pronome‎
  •  Lithuanian: įvardis‎ (masc.)
  •  Spanish: pronombre‎ (masc.)
  •  Icelandic: fornafn‎ (neut.)
  •  Limburgish: veurnaamwaord‎ (neut.)
  •  Azeri: əvəzlik‎
  •  Bengali: সর্বনাম‎ (sawrbonam)
  •  Russian: местоиме́ние‎ (neut.)

What are intensive pronoun examples?

An intensive 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 intensive pronouns from Your Dictionary and Grammarly that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Try to use the term intensive pronouns today or notice when someone else is using an intensive pronoun.

  •  We went to listen to President Obama himself speak.
  •  Sheila approved the purchase herself.
  •  Did you yourself make the cake?
  •  The author approved the book cover herself .
  •  I myself don’t forgive you.
  •  The protest was so crazy, she herself stood up before the crowd to take a stand.
  •  I myself like a little stroll after dinner.
  •  We went to hear the mayor himself speak.
  •  He himself built that house.
  •  I myself made a sandwich.
  •  The hairdresser herself was once an athlete.
  •  You yourselves need to clean up this mess!
  •  I myself prefer a cup of coffee to tea.
  •  Juliana herself enjoys the January weather.

What are other literary techniques 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. 

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

Overall, the term intensive pronouns in English grammar refer to pronounce that place emphasis on the subject.

Sources:

  1. Glossary of Grammatical Terms | OED
  2. Intensive Pronouns | Your Dictionary
  3. pronoun: meaning, origin, translation | Word Sense 
  4. ​​What Is an Intensive Pronoun? | Grammarly