Before doing this activity you may need to read the text you will find at the end
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| You guys are sadomasochist, locked in two different cells. |
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A- You hit yourselves B- You hit each other |
| You guys are fighting |
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A- You hit yourselves B- You hit each other |
| We are dancing tango |
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A- We are dancing with ourselves B- We are dancing with each other |
| They are going to get married |
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A- They love themselves B- They love each other |
| Everybody is talking at the same time, this meeting is chaos! |
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A- Stop! You must listen to yourselves or this will be crazy B- Stop! You must listen to each other or this will be crazy |
| I am home alone, feeling lonely. You are home alone too. |
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A- We are talking to ourselves B- We are talking to one another |
| He lives alone in the desert. She lives alone in the mountains. |
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A- They have to help themselves B- They have to help each other |
| It's Christmas, remember your friends! |
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A- We sent Christmas cards to ourselves B- We sent Christmas cards to one another |
| I phoned you and we are making plans for the weekend |
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A- We are talking to ourselves B- We are talking to one another |
| The ship sank and they are alone on a desert island |
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A- They have to help themselves B- They have to help each other |
| They are selfish |
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A- They love themselves B- They love each other |
| In modern society we are too stressed and disorganised, even our health is getting worse. We must learn to relax and enjoy life. We need to take care of our bodies and minds. |
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A- Let's be nice to ourselves B- Let's be nice to one another |
| We are sharing a flat so we have to live together. |
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A- Let's be nice to ourselves B- Let's be nice to one another |
| You helped me and I helped you |
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A- We are thankful to ourselves B- We are thankful to each other |
| I did a very good job and got a promotion. The same thing happened to you. |
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A- We are thankful to ourselves B- We are thankul to each other |
We can use EACH OTHER or ONE ANOTHER when the action goes from A to B and from B to A at the same time (reciprocal)
They smiled at each other (= he smiled at her and she smiled at him)
Notice the difference between reflexive pronouns (themselves) and reciprocal pronouns (each other / one another)
| Themselves | Each Other | |||||||||
| A |  |
B | |
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A |  |
B |
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- Paul and Susan are looking at themselves in the mirror = Paul looks at Paul's reflection & Susan looks at Susan's reflexion (reflexivo)
- Paul and Susan are looking at themselves = Paul looks at Susan & Susan looks at Paul (reciprocal)
- You can only love yourselves (you guys are selfish)
- You love each other a lot (there is a lot of love between you)
- They killed themselves (it was suicide)
- They killed each other (everybody was shooting everybody, it was murder)
EACH OTHER or ONE ANOTHER?
Traditionally, they used EACH OTHER when talking about two people and ONE ANOTHER when it is more than two people. But in modern English that difference is disappearing, so most people now use one expression or the other with the same meaning. EACH OTHER is the most common.
