Please pardon me if my write-up is not well spaced/paragraphed. It's just a small phone. Here we go... As negligible as some errors in the English language may appear, these may bring about some form of misinterpretation of messages passed across from the speaker to the receiver. The topic of this thread is one of them. Before I proceed, it is pertinent that I re-visit these two types of pronouns - reflexive pronouns and reciprocal pronouns. Reflexive pronouns point back to the subject of the sentence. They are also used for emphases. Examples are: myself, yourself, himself, themselves etc. Reciprocal pronouns on the other hand show sense of togetherness in a relationship between two or more people. Each other and one another are the two types of reciprocal pronouns. Therefore, 'The boys love themselves' means, each one loves himself - not that one loves another. One boy out of the boys, loves himself! Another boy, out of the boys, loves himself! Themselves means one being particular about oneself where there are a lot of other such people who are particular about themselves as individuals, too. To show a one to one relationship, say instead: the boys love one another/each other. There is a song titled 'Baba Mimo' by a Nigerian artiste which I so much love. Towards the end of this song, the singer sings in Yoruba 'ko wa, ka le ma feran arawa' which means 'teach us to love one another'. But the English version of 'ko wa, ka le ma feran arawa' according to the song is, 'teach us to love ourselves'. From the foregoing, this is a misinterpretation of 'ko wa, ka le ma feran arawa'. Goodluck to those who may find this useful.