Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - themselves

Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. Note: 'Themselves' is the third person plural reflexive pronoun. 1. You use themselves to refer to people, animals, or things when the object of a verb or preposition refers to the same people or things as the subject of the verb. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves... The men talked amongst themselves... PRON: v PRON, prep PRON 2. You use themselves to emphasize the people or things that you are referring to. Themselves is also sometimes used instead of ‘them’ as the object of a verb or preposition. Many mentally ill people are themselves unhappy about the idea of community care... PRON c darkgreen]emphasis 3. You use themselves instead of ‘himself or herself’ to refer back to the person who is the subject of sentence without saying whether it is a man or a woman. Some people think this use is incorrect. What can a patient with emphysema do to help themselves?... PRON: v PRON, prep PRON 4. You use themselves instead of ‘himself or herself’ to emphasize the person you are referring to without saying whether it is a man or a woman. Themselves is also sometimes used as the object of a verb or preposition. Some people think this use is incorrect. Each student makes only one item themselves... PRON c darkgreen]emphasis