Reflexive pronoun use when subject is a subset of the prepositional object


If a pronoun is in object position in a sentence, you don't normally use the reflexive form of the pronoun -



Sally bought a ticket for him.



unless the subject and object of the sentence are the same -



John bought a ticket for himself.



What happens in the case where there are multiple pronouns in object position, and the subject is a subset of the object? Which of the following is correct?



John bought tickets for me and him.


John bought tickets for me and himself.




Answer



If I were the writer, I'd say



John bought the tickets for himself and me



The reflexive pronoun is better placed after the subject and the verb phrase. Otherwise an even easier workaround would be:



John bought tickets for (the) both of us.



It looks neater and there is no ambiguity.


P.S credit and my thanks to @deadrat who pointed out a discrepancy with the wording


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