I am often caught out by wrong spellings and grammar, even though I am an English teacher. Sometimes it is a typo. Sometimes it is haste. I am very grateful the grammarly, which is free, and the automatic and predictive spellings, help me to get things right.
Esperanto is a made up and logical language.I just read a completely clear explanation of reflexive pronouns on an Esperanto teaching page.
I arrived there in a roundabout way. I decided that although I was short of time I should delay finishing my daily Esperanto exercise by diverting to read the forum. I was rewarded for my diligence and curiosity.
Reflexive Words
I have often sat in the audience and been irritated by speakers who think that the word I starting a sentence must be followed my myself. (I, myself, have often sat ... - you can see how irritating this becomes. It adds nothing to the sentence and simply delays comprehension and makes the speaker sound pretentious.)
The blog post explained how the Esperanto word mem is used for this purpose, to add emphasis. My view is that for a speaker on stage or in a classroom the word myself at the start of a sentence for emphasis is always unnecessary.
I think that I myself, you, yourself, she, herself, always sounds clumsy. 'You, yourself, would not do that, would you?" sounds rather rude, metaphorically backing the other person into a corner.
The reflexive use of myself, yourself, himself is, however, handy for clarity, especially in the third person. 'He gave it to him' makes the listener stop to consider whether the object of the sentence is the same person as the subject. This is a common confusion. For clarity, it would be better to say either, 'He gave it to himself,' or, 'He gave it to his friend'.
Learning Esperanto has three great benefits.
1 It teaches you another language so you can converse where it is spoken, as a second language in Hungary and at the annual conference and if you stay in the home of an Esperanto speaker, especially in a country whose language is not widely known outside.
2 You learn the rules of language, English and languages in general, as I have demonstrated above.
3 You gain confidence in learning languages. Instead of saying that you speak only English, or only two languages, you have another to add to your list. Esperanto is easy, yet many people are impressed and assume you must be extra clever to learn an additional language, especially one they do not know.
Useful Websites
https://blogs.transparent.com/esperanto/himself-mem-or-si/
duolingo.com
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. English contest judge, and Teacher of English and other languages. Trainer for colleges and business.
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