How to Use Reciprocal Pronouns

You can remember what a reciprocal pronoun is by focusing on the word "reciprocate." A reciprocal pronoun is one that you use when you want to identify a feeling or action that's reciprocated, so it always refers to more than one individual.

Instructions

1. Recognize the most common reciprocal pronouns, which are "one another" and "each other." Notice that these reciprocal pronouns are phrases, not individual words.

2. Understand that a reciprocal pronoun refers to a plural noun or to multiple nouns in your sentence. If you just have one singular noun, you can't use a reciprocal pronoun because there's no one in the sentence who can share the action or feeling.

3. Use reciprocal pronouns in a sentence to emphasize that the individuals involved are equally participating in the action or feeling. For example, "Fred and Elli love one another" makes it clear that Fred loves Elli and Elli loves Fred.

4. Omit the reciprocal pronoun if you want to emphasize one individual's actions or feelings, even if you know that the action or feeling is mutual. If you want to emphasize Fred's love because you're focusing on his experience, you can just write, "Fred loves Elli." This doesn't necessarily mean that Elli doesn't return the love.

5. Realize that you can use possessive forms of reciprocal pronouns by adding the apostrophe "s" to the end of the reciprocal pronoun. For example, "Fred and Elli can wear each other's shoes" correctly expresses the possessive form, since Fred and Elli both own shoes that the other can wear.