Intensive Pronouns - 6th Grade Writing

Section 1

Where Did Intensive Pronouns Come From?

English is a language that has been changing for over a thousand years. Long ago, when people in England spoke Old English (around 450–1100 CE), they already had special word forms that could add emphasis to a sentence. Over the centuries, those word forms shifted and simplified until they became the -self and -selves words we use today.

Let's look at a quick timeline to see how these pronouns developed.

~450 CE

Old English speakers use the word self as a separate adjective meaning "same" or "very." It sits next to a pronoun to add force: for example, ic self (I self).

~1100 CE

During Middle English, self starts attaching directly to pronouns. Words like myself, himself, and herself begin appearing as single words instead of two separate ones.

~1500 CE

By the Early Modern English period (the era of Shakespeare!), intensive pronouns are common. Shakespeare writes lines like "I myself will go" to emphasize who is doing the action.

1700s–1800s

Grammar books begin formally listing the -self/-selves pronouns and explaining their two uses: intensive (for emphasis) and reflexive (when the subject and object are the same).

Today

The Common Core standards include intensive pronouns as a key skill for 6th-grade writers. You'll see them every day in books, speeches, and conversations.

So here's the big question this lesson answers: How do you use words like myself, yourself, and themselves correctly to add emphasis — and how can you tell the difference between an intensive pronoun and a reflexive pronoun? Let's find out.

Section 2

Core Definitions & Principles

Before we dive into examples, let's nail down the key ideas. An intensive pronoun is a pronoun that ends in -self or -selves and is used right next to another noun or pronoun to emphasize it. "Intensive" comes from a Latin word meaning "to stretch or strengthen." That's exactly what these pronouns do — they stretch and strengthen the meaning of the word they sit beside.

Emphasis, Not Action

An intensive pronoun doesn't receive any action. It simply says, "Yes, I really mean that person." Example: "The principal herself congratulated us."

Removable Without Breaking the Sentence

If you can remove the -self/-selves word and the sentence still makes complete sense, it's intensive. "The principal congratulated us" still works perfectly!

Sits Right Next to Its Partner

An intensive pronoun usually appears right after the noun or pronoun it emphasizes — or at the end of the clause. "I myself baked the cake" or "I baked the cake myself."

Must Match in Number and Person

The intensive pronoun must agree with the word it emphasizes. If the subject is "she," use "herself" — never "himself" or "themselves."

✦

KEY TAKEAWAY

Think of an intensive pronoun like an exclamation point inside a sentence. When you write "The queen herself visited our school," the word herself is like verbally underlining "the queen." It shouts, "I'm not joking — it was really the queen!" Without herself, the sentence still works, but the wow factor disappears.

Section 3

Visual Explanation — The Intensive Pronoun Family

There are exactly eight intensive pronouns in English. They are organized by person (first, second, third) and by number (singular or plural). The diagram below shows all eight, color-coded so you can spot the pattern.

Singular forms end in -self · Plural forms end in -selves. Dashed arrows show singular → plural pairs.

Notice the clear pattern: every singular pronoun ends in -self, and every plural pronoun ends in -selves. The third-person singular group has three options because English uses different pronouns for males (himself), females (herself), and things or animals (itself).

Here's something important to remember: "hisself" and "theirselves" are not standard English words. You might hear people say them in casual conversation, but in your writing, always use himself and themselves.

Section 4

How Intensive Pronouns Work

So how do you actually use an intensive pronoun in a sentence? There's a simple two-part mechanism. First, you write a noun or pronoun that names a person, place, or thing. Then you place the matching -self/-selves word right after it (or at the very end of the clause) to add emphasis.

Rule 1 — Place it right after the noun it emphasizes

📝

The students themselves organized the talent show.

Here, themselves sits right after students to stress that the students — not a teacher, not a parent — were the ones who organized it.

Rule 2 — Or place it at the end of the clause

📝

I built the bookshelf myself.

Putting myself at the end still links it to I. The emphasis is the same: you did it without help from anyone else.

The Big Test: Can You Remove It?

This is the easiest way to check if a pronoun is intensive. Try taking it out. Does the sentence still make sense?

💡

✅ "The students organized the talent show." — Still makes sense! → themselves was intensive.

⚠

❌ "She taught ______ to play guitar." — That sounds incomplete. → herself here is reflexive, not intensive.

If the sentence breaks when you remove the -self word, then it's reflexive (a different use). If it still sounds fine, you've found an intensive pronoun. We'll explore this comparison more in Section 7.

Use this flowchart every time you aren't sure. Over time, you'll start spotting intensive pronouns automatically — no flowchart needed!

Section 5

Detailed Breakdown — All Eight Pronouns in Action

Let's look at each intensive pronoun with an example sentence. Pay attention to which noun or pronoun each one emphasizes.

Intensive Pronoun	Emphasizes	Example Sentence
myself	I / me	I myself couldn't believe the score.
yourself	you (singular)	You yourself said it was a great idea.
himself	he / him	The chef himself came to our table.
herself	she / her	My grandmother herself taught me to cook.
itself	it	The building itself is over 200 years old.
ourselves	we / us	We ourselves painted every wall.
yourselves	you (plural)	You yourselves know how hard we practiced.
themselves	they / them	The animals themselves seemed to enjoy the music.

Every single example above passes the "removal test." Try reading each sentence without the bolded word — you'll see that it still makes sense. The intensive pronoun just turns up the volume on who or what you're talking about.

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KEY TAKEAWAY

Think of intensive pronouns like a spotlight on a stage. The actor (the noun) is already there doing their thing. The spotlight (the intensive pronoun) just makes sure the audience notices exactly who is in the scene. Without the spotlight, the actor is still performing — you just might not pay as much attention.

Section 6

Worked Example

Let's walk through a full example from start to finish. Imagine you're writing a paragraph for class, and you want to show that something surprising happened.

Adding an Intensive Pronoun to a Sentence

1
Step 1 — Write Your Basic Sentence

Start with a simple sentence: "The president visited our school last Friday." That's a fine sentence. But you want to make it clear that the actual president came — not just a representative.
2
Step 2 — Identify the Noun You Want to Emphasize

The noun you want to highlight is "the president." That's the part that's surprising and worth stressing.
3
Step 3 — Choose the Right Intensive Pronoun

"The president" is third-person singular. Depending on the president's gender, you would choose himself or herself. Let's say the president is female, so we'll use herself.
4
Step 4 — Place the Intensive Pronoun

Put herself right after "the president": "The president herself visited our school last Friday." Or you could place it at the end: "The president visited our school last Friday herself." Both positions work, but placing it right after the noun often feels more natural.
5
Step 5 — Run the Removal Test

Remove herself: "The president visited our school last Friday." ✅ The sentence still makes sense! This confirms that herself is being used as an intensive pronoun.
6
Final Result

✨ "The president herself visited our school last Friday."

The intensive pronoun adds drama and surprise. Your reader immediately knows: this isn't second-hand news — the president really, truly showed up in person.

Section 7

Intensive vs. Reflexive — What's the Difference?

Intensive pronouns and reflexive pronouns use the exact same words (myself, yourself, himself, etc.). The difference is all about how they're used in a sentence. Let's compare them side by side.

Feature	Intensive Pronoun	Reflexive Pronoun
Purpose	Adds emphasis to another noun or pronoun	Shows the subject is also the object (receives the action)
Removable?	Yes — sentence still works without it	No — sentence becomes incomplete or changes meaning
Position	Right after the noun it emphasizes, or end of clause	After the verb, as the object
Example	She herself fixed the car.	She fixed herself a sandwich.
Removal test	"She fixed the car." ✅	"She fixed a sandwich." ⚠️ (changes meaning)

Here's the cool part: once you know the removal test, you'll never mix them up again. If you can take out the -self word and the sentence still makes sense, it's intensive. If the sentence falls apart, it's reflexive.

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KEY TAKEAWAY

Imagine you're decorating a cupcake. The frosting on top is the intensive pronoun — it makes the cupcake look amazing, but you still have a cupcake without it. The actual cake batter is the reflexive pronoun — if you remove it, there's no cupcake at all. Both use the same words, but one is decoration (intensive) and the other is structure (reflexive).

Section 8

Connecting to Bigger Ideas

Now that you understand intensive pronouns, let's peek at how this skill connects to more advanced writing and grammar concepts you'll encounter in later grades.

What You Know Now	What Comes Next
Intensive pronouns add emphasis	In 7th–8th grade, you'll learn about other emphatic structures like cleft sentences ("It was Sarah who won the race") and appositives.
The removal test distinguishes intensive from reflexive	In high school, you'll study deeper pronoun functions: nominative, objective, and possessive cases — and how pronoun errors change meaning.
Pronouns must agree with their antecedent (the noun they refer to)	Pronoun-antecedent agreement becomes more complex with indefinite pronouns like "everyone" and "each."
Intensive pronouns make writing more expressive	In rhetoric and persuasion classes, you'll learn how emphasis can be used as a persuasive technique in speeches and essays.

Mastering intensive pronouns isn't just about passing a quiz. It gives you a tool for making your writing more precise and powerful. When you write "I myself believe we should change the school lunch menu," you sound confident and clear. That skill will serve you in every essay, presentation, and argument you ever make.

Section 9

Practice Problems

Time to test what you've learned! Try each problem before clicking "Show Answer." The problems get a little harder as you go.

Question 1: Problem 1 — Conceptual

What is the job of an intensive pronoun in a sentence? How is it different from a reflexive pronoun?

Show answer

An intensive pronoun adds emphasis to another noun or pronoun in the sentence. It says, "I really mean this person or thing." A reflexive pronoun, on the other hand, shows that the subject is also receiving the action (for example, "She hurt herself"). The key difference is that you can remove an intensive pronoun and the sentence still makes sense, but you can't remove a reflexive pronoun without breaking the sentence. Nice job if you remembered the removal test!

Question 2: Problem 2 — Identification

Read this sentence: "The dog itself knocked over the trash can." Identify the intensive pronoun. Which word does it emphasize?

Show answer

The intensive pronoun is itself. It emphasizes the noun "dog." The sentence is stressing that the dog — not a raccoon, not the wind, not a person — is the one that knocked over the trash can. You can check by removing "itself": "The dog knocked over the trash can." That still makes perfect sense, so "itself" is definitely intensive here.

Question 3: Problem 3 — Intermediate

For each sentence below, decide whether the underlined word is an intensive pronoun or a reflexive pronoun. a) We ourselves cleaned up after the party. b) He accidentally cut himself with the scissors. c) The author herself signed my book.

Show answer

a) Intensive. Remove "ourselves": "We cleaned up after the party." ✅ Still makes sense. The word just emphasizes that we did it, not someone else. b) Reflexive. Remove "himself": "He accidentally cut with the scissors." ❌ That's incomplete — we need to know what he cut. "Himself" is the object of the verb "cut." c) Intensive. Remove "herself": "The author signed my book." ✅ Still works! "Herself" just highlights that the actual author was there. Great work if you used the removal test on each one!

Question 4: Problem 4 — Applied

Your friend wrote this paragraph for a class essay, but it sounds flat. Rewrite it by adding intensive pronouns where they would make the writing more powerful. "Our team won the championship. The coach couldn't stop smiling. The trophy was taller than some of the players. We carried it off the field."

Show answer

Here is one possible revision (your wording might differ, and that's okay!): "Our team itself won the championship. The coach himself couldn't stop smiling. The trophy itself was taller than some of the players. We carried it off the field ourselves." Notice how the intensive pronouns make each sentence feel more dramatic? They stress that this wasn't just any team — it was our team. You didn't need to use an intensive pronoun in every single sentence, but adding a few gives the paragraph extra energy. In your own writing, choose the moments where emphasis matters most.

Question 5: Problem 5 — Critical Thinking

Read this sentence carefully: "I myself taught myself to play piano." This sentence uses the word "myself" twice. Explain the role of each "myself." Are they both intensive, both reflexive, or one of each?

Show answer

This is a tricky one — great job for tackling it! The first "myself" (right after "I") is intensive. It emphasizes who did the teaching. If you remove it, you get: "I taught myself to play piano." ✅ That still works. The second "myself" (after "taught") is reflexive. It's the object of the verb "taught" — it tells us who was taught. If you remove it, you get: "I myself taught to play piano." ❌ That's incomplete because "taught" needs an object. So the answer is one of each! The same word can play different roles depending on where it appears. This shows why understanding grammar is so useful — the same word can do completely different jobs in the same sentence.

Summary

Lesson Summary

Summary

In this lesson, you learned that intensive pronouns are the eight words — myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves — that add emphasis to another noun or pronoun in a sentence. They evolved from Old English over a thousand years and are a standard part of modern grammar. The most important thing to remember is the removal test: if you can take the -self/-selves word out and the sentence still makes complete sense, it's intensive. If the sentence breaks, the pronoun is reflexive instead. Intensive pronouns must always match the word they emphasize in person and number (for example, "she" pairs with "herself," not "himself").

Use intensive pronouns in your writing when you want to make it crystal clear that a specific person or thing is the one you're talking about. Whether you're writing an essay, a speech, or even a text message, dropping in a well-placed herself or themselves is like turning up the volume on the most important word in your sentence. You now have the tools — the pronoun chart, the flowchart, and the removal test — to use them with confidence!