Kirk Mahoney . com

I heard this on National Public Radio.

Problem:
The pronoun “ourself” is nonstandard.

Explanation:
The pronoun “ourself” has only a couple of entries in most dictionaries. The first entry typically says used as a reflexive pronoun in royal proclamations. The second entry typically says that “ourself” is nonstandard.

In other words, “ourself” in most situations is an incorrect replacement for the reflexive pronoun “ourselves”. The word “ourself” is incorrect because “our” is plural and takes the plural “selves” (instead of the singular “self”).

I suspect that the increasing use of “ourself” outside of royal proclamations is due to increasing misuse of the reflexive pronouns “himself”, “herself” and “yourself” in non-reflexive situations. For example, many people have become accustomed to saying “yourself” when the correct pronoun is “you” instead.

Solution:
“Ourselves”