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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Grammar

is the statement, "He himself is an engineer" correct? This is asked as if to say in the following context. "He calls himself ignorant when he himself is an engineer" or is it more correct to say "He calls himself ignorant when is an engineer himself"...
  

Top answer

I'm not sure it is the best way to say what you are trying to here. First of all, as a stand alone statement, not in the context of other statements, "He, himself, is an engineer," would never be correct. , He is highly critical of the field of engineering despite the fact that he, himself, is an engineer.

— Sam1947

  • I'm not sure it is the best way to say what you are trying to here.
  • First of all, as a stand alone statement, not in the context of other statements, "He, himself, is an engineer," would never be correct.
  • , He is highly critical of the field of engineering despite the fact that he, himself, is an engineer.
  • In this sentence, the use of the reflexive pronoun is emphasizing the fact that an engineer is criticizing the field of engineering.
  • But, although it is incongruent to think that an educated and trained engineer could be ignorant (albeit, they could be on many other subjects), this sentence doesn't work for me with the reflexive pronoun because there is no reason to emphasize "he" with "himself" when ignorance is not something associated with engineering.
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1 Answers
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I'm not sure it is the best way to say what you are trying to here. First of all, as a stand alone statement, not in the context of other statements, "He, himself, is an engineer," would never be correct.

There are instances where, "he, himself, is an engineer would be appropriate, e.g.,

He is highly critical of the field of engineering despite the fact that he, himself, is an
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