Relying on reflexive pronouns
Posted by pakguru on April 19th, 2018 | 2 responses | grammar, IELTS, menggantungkan diri, pronouns, reflexive pronouns, speaking, vocabulary, writing
Technology makes people rely themselves on instruments.
In this sentence, themselves is described by grammarians as a ‘reflexive pronoun’. Reflexive pronouns are used when the object of a sentence is the same as the subject. For example:
However, verbs like rely and depend, do not require reflexive pronouns:
- Many small companies rely on college students.
- A cloud database relies on cloud technology.
- Economic success ultimately depends on private firms.
- Heat dissipation depends on body surface area.
Returning to our opening example, we need:
- Technology makes people rely on instruments.
Indonesians need to take care when translating “menggantungkan diri pada..”
Many native speakers of English say ‘myself’ when referring to themselves, as the word ‘me ‘ seems far too informal. This is becoming most common. ‘If you can get this to myself by Monday’…
Non native speakers would rarely commit this error
Right. I suppose there’s also the situation where you refer to a person in authority as ‘himself’, either do indicate familiarity or sometimes contempt. “If you can get this to ‘himself’ by Monday..” A slightly different problem to the one illustrated in the post, but ya.. interesting. Thanks for commenting!😊