himself

"Himself" points back to a man or boy already named as the subject of the sentence. It is used when the action returns to that same person, as in "He hurt himself while playing soccer." It is also used for emphasis, especially when you want to show that he did something alone or in person, as in "He built the treehouse himself."

You will often see it in everyday moments: a boy teaching himself a song, a man blaming himself for a mistake, or a father fixing the car himself on a quiet afternoon. In each case, the word makes the link clear between the subject and the person affected or emphasized.

"Himself" is a reflexive pronoun, a word that sends the action back to the subject of the sentence. It usually refers to a man or boy. If we say, "He cut himself while shaving," the person doing the action and the person receiving it are the same. The same pattern appears in sentences like "He taught himself French," "He blamed himself for the loss," or "He introduced himself to the group." In all of these, the word helps English avoid confusion by showing that the action comes back to the male subject.

It also has a second job: emphasis. In this use, it does not show who receives the action, but adds force to the sentence. "The president himself signed the letter" tells us that the important man did it in person. "He fixed the bike himself" suggests independence, effort, or pride. This use often appears when a speaker wants to highlight that no helper stepped in, or that the person was personally involved.

There are also common patterns built around identity and inner feeling. Someone can be "proud of himself," "ashamed of himself," or "not himself today," though that last phrase has a slightly different sense, meaning he does not seem normal or well. The key idea stays steady across these uses: the word points back to the same male person already at the center of the sentence. If the subject is female, English uses "herself" instead.