Relying on reflexive pronouns

Posted by Pak Guru 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..”

2 responses to “Relying on reflexive pronouns”

1. Gayle Selby says:

   April 19, 2018 at 8:12 pm

   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

   Reply
   • Pak Guru says:

     April 19, 2018 at 8:20 pm

     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!😊

     Reply