Question

Choose the most appropriate option to fill in the blanks with reflexive or emphasizing pronouns.

Do your work ____________ you lazy boy! Your laziness will one day land you into trouble and God ____________ will not be able to save you. [Intermediate]

• A. himself, yourself
• B. yourselves, himself
• C. yourself, itself
• D. yourself, himself

Answer 1

The correct option is D yourself, himself

Pronouns replace nouns that have been mentioned before or in the previous statement, to avoid repetition. Here we're given two statements. The first contains two pronouns "your" and "you". It refers to the same person, "your" is a possessive pronoun that shows ownership of "work" by the listener 'you', and "you" is the listener with whom the speaker is talking. The work, that belongs to the listener, should be done by the listener, hence a reflexive pronoun of 'you' is required. Reflexive pronouns refer to a person that receives an action from that same person. Hence 'yourself' is the correct option, it's in the second person singular. 'Himself' is in the third person point of view, used when the speaker is talking to the listener about a third person, who's not a part of that conversation, whereas here the speaker is speaking to the listener about the listener, there's no third person in the first statement, hence 'himself' in option A isn't correct. 'Yourself' refers to the listener, and "God" is the third person, He is not participating in that dialogue, hence option A is incorrect. "God" is regarded as a living entity, hence He is given a gender, 'He', and a reflexive pronoun that refers to 'he' is used, 'himself', whereas 'itself' is used for things, usually for animals. Hence option C is incorrect. The listener is a single person, suggested by the phrase "you lazy boy!", hence 'yourselves' cannot be used in the first statement, so option B is incorrect. The remaining option is D, which has both correct answers, hence we choose this option.