Himself, herself, theirselves(?!)

Posted by Pak Guru on March 17th, 2016 | 0 comments | culture, EAP, grammar, IELTS, mereka, pronouns, referencing, speaking, substitution, vocabulary, writing

Before departing for Australia, students must prepare theirselves in order to avoid culture shock.

..selves. More than one ‘self’. OK, no complaints about that.
..theirselves. Now you’re being inconsistent with your object pronouns.
You guys have no problem producing the following:

• He loves her.
• She loves him.
• Their parents love them.

And you would never write:

• Their parents love their.
• Look at their!
• They say they love each other and I believe their.

So why the sudden switch to possessive ‘their’?! Please use the object pronoun (him, her, them) + ‘self/selves’:

• Before departing for Australia, students must prepare themselves in order to avoid culture shock.

And you might think about some collocation (prepare + s.o./s.th. + for + s.th.):

• Before departing for Australia, students must prepare themselves for culture shock.

Finally, we can assume that the students must prepare themselves and not other people, so strictly speaking themselves is redundant:

• Before departing for Australia, students must prepare for culture shock.

There is a kind of exception to the above rule. Does anybody know what it is? Comments below please!