Do it yourself is closely associated with making repairs and improvements to houses and automobiles without the aid of professionals, to the extent that do-it-yourself has entered the dictionary as an adjective (e.g. do-it-yourself project or do-it-yourself manual) and DIY is the name of a television network with shows about people who do their ...
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2. You can address a plural audience in the singular, of course: 'Mind you don't cut yourself' could certainly be said when addressing a class of young craft students. It's the 'individual/personal touch'. But you'd probably use 'Keep that smile to yourself' here, and the plural would probably be preferable with this example in any case: the ...
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The entries for the reflexive pronouns (‘myself’, ‘yourself’, &c.) in the OED seem to indicate that they are used when the object and subject are the same (‘I confuse myself’), or for emphatic purposes (‘I myself am lost’). However, the use of the reflexive pronoun as either a direct or indirect object (‘He gave it to myself’) seems to be acceptable in Irish English.
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Reflexive pronouns like yourself should only be used if the corresponding non-reflexive pronoun (in this case, you) has already been used in the sentence. Since there is no you in the sentence prior to yourself, it's ungrammatical. Some native English speakers use yourself as a formal pronoun, to make them sound more educated (or at least what ...
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22."Suit yourself" means, basically,"ok, do whatever you want; I'm done arguing". It implies that the speaker made some attempt (perhaps small) to get the listener to do something; it's not generally something you say out of the blue. It's a pretty common idiom in US English. I don't know the derivation.
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"Apply yourself" means to put in the effort required to master a subject or attain some other goal. Here's a good example of the usage from A Cab Called Reliable: A Novel by Patti Kim: From her leather-upholstered, swiveling recliner, she leaned down at me and said,"If you want to succeed here and in your life, you must focus, concentrate, and apply yourself .
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0. You use yourself as the object to refer to the second person (you) when the subject already contains the second person (you). Examples: You see yourself as an artist. Consider yourself lucky. Imperatives always have the implied subject, you. Based on that information, the following sentence would be the better choice:
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Here are the relevant definitions: brace (verb) — prepare (someone or oneself) for something difficult or unpleasant. steel (verb) — mentally prepare (oneself) to do or face something difficult. — New Oxford American Dictionary (2nd Edition) Another related phrase is brace up: brace up (phrasal verb) — be strong or courageous.
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You yourself have made up the illusory world in which you move. As you said, the first of those is ambiguous. The second is clear in meaning, though it's questionable whether the"yourself" belongs where you've put it or whether it would be more effective at the other end of the sentence. You have made up the illusory world in which you ...
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And yourself?" 'Yourself' sounds more formal, and is used frequently in everyday language (at least in my surroundings). However, I've been doing a little bit of investigation into the use of my vs myself and you vs yourself and it seems that it is only used reflexively to reflect back to 'you' or 'me' as the subject. E.g., you hurt yourself.
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