You vs. Yourself
'Yourself' is a second person singular reflexive pronoun, 'you' is the second person personal pronoun both singular and plural. Can they be interchangeable?
Why the Confusion?
Sometimes people confuse or misuse the pronouns ' you'' and ' yourself' to maybe sound sophisticated or educated. But these two pronouns are not interchangeable.
Grammatical functions
'You': Depending on its role in a sentence, 'you' can be:
- a subject pronoun
You told me to keep it a secret.
Here, 'you' is the subject of the sentence.
I'm telling you I'm not going anywhere.
Here, 'you' is the object of the sentence.
I'll be standing right next to you.
Here, 'you' is the object of the preposition.
- a predicative after the verb ' be'
Admit it Jake! It was you.
Here, 'you' is the predicative of the verb 'be'.
Other Uses
Addressing Directly
'You' can also be used with some nouns and adjectives to speak to somebody directly.
You guys, listen to me!
I hate you,
Generic 'You'
'You' in its plural sense, can refer to people in general. It is similar to the impersonal pronoun ' one' in this sense.
You can find love when
'Yourself'
'Yourself' is the reflexive form of the singular 'you' and can only be used when the pronoun 'you' has already been used in the sentence once. If there are any other pronouns, except 'you', you’re not allowed to use 'yourself'. See the examples below:
Have you hurt
yourself
Implied 'You' in Imperatives
Do it yourself!
Enjoy
'You' as an Emphatic Pronoun
Other than being a reflexive pronoun, 'yourself' can also be an emphatic pronoun. You can use it to put emphasis on the 'you' part.
You
Is 'Yourself' More Polite?
Sometimes people use 'yourself' instead of 'you' in order to sound polite or formal. But it is technically wrong. However, people do use it in spoken language.
We don't see many gentlemen nowadays, like
And