Him vs Himself
If you have typed text in MS Word, you must have faced the problem of the word himself getting underlined with a green line. This is indicative of the fact that you may have made a mistake and used himself when you should have used him. Many people make frequent mistakes with these two words. This article attempts to make clear the usage of these two words
Pronouns in English have their reflexive forms such as myself for I, himself for he, herself for she, ourselves for we, themselves for they, and so on. The golden rule to remember the use of reflexive pronouns is that they become necessary when the object in a sentence is same as the subject. Reflexive pronouns are also used to put an emphasis on the subject and also as preposition’s object. Take a look at the flowing sentences.
Subject and object are the same
• My little daughter loves to dress herself without taking my help.
• She injured herself while cutting vegetables.
• The cat scratched itself when she was troubled by fleas
Putting an emphasis
• The great man himself signed the cap for his little fan
• I have done it myself
To describe similar feelings
• Helen was very sad after the death of her father. I, myself was sad because of her.
Him vs Himself
• Reflexive pronoun is used instead of repeating the pronoun in a sentence.
• Himself is a reflexive pronoun for he.
• Himself is used to emphasize and also when the object and the subject are the Same.