You vs Yourself

[iamwkk]

Which of the following is correct?
1) We're grateful for comments from people like you who take a strong interest in ......
2) We're grateful for comments from people like your good self who takes a strong interest in ......
3) We're grateful for comments from people like your good self who take a strong interest in ......
4) We're grateful for comments from people like yourself who takes a strong interest in ......
Please help. Thanks.

[matilda]

in my opinion, 2 and 3 are completely incorrect.
1 is correct.
but about 4. althought it is gramatically correct, it is not widely used or common.

[rewboss]

1 is grammatically correct.

4 is definitely incorrect. One reason is that "yourself" is not correctly used here. It's a fairly common error, but according to the rules of formal grammar, "yourself" is a reflexive pronoun, but it is not being used reflexively here.

"Yourself" is used in constructions such as "blame it on yourself" or "look at yourself in the mirror, where the object and the subject are identical. If all you wish to do is to emphasise the pronoun, you cannot (according to formal rules) simply make it reflexive. You can, however, place the reflexive pronoun after the usual subject or object pronoun, "you yourself"; but I find that a little clumsy.

"Your good self" is a very formal, polite and rather old-fashioned way of saying "you". These days it's sometimes used sarcastically, so it's probably better to avoid it.

Should it be "who takes..." or "who take..." here? You could probably argue for either, but I vote for "who take...", because "who" refers back to "people". I interpret the phrase "like your good self" or "like you" to be parenthetical.

[DavyBCN]

Originally Posted by iamwkk

Which of the following is correct?
1) We're grateful for comments from people like you who take a strong interest in ......
2) We're grateful for comments from people like your good self who takes a strong interest in ......
3) We're grateful for comments from people like your good self who take a strong interest in ......
4) We're grateful for comments from people like yourself who takes a strong interest in ......
Please help. Thanks.

I agree with Matilda on 1 and 4.

2 and 3 are not so much grammatically correct as very old-fashioned and represent, to me at least, an attempt to flatter which is excessive. Whenever it was said to me, luckily many years ago, I thought the speaker was an idiot. If you know the Dickens character Uriah Heep, someone who always did and said whatever he thought would please his master, then this would be a phrase he would (and probably did) use.