Himself or Hisself: Which One Is Correct and Why It Matters?

If you have ever wondered whether himself or hisself is the correct spelling, you are not alone. Both forms can be heard in English, especially in informal or regional speech. However, they do not have the same status in standard English.

The short answer is simple: himself is the standard English reflexive pronoun. Hisself is a nonstandard or dialectal form that occurs in some varieties of English.

That distinction matters when you are writing an essay, email, report, article, application, or other formal text. At the same time, understanding hisself can help you recognize regional speech and informal dialogue without automatically treating every occurrence as a random spelling mistake.

This guide explains the difference between himself and hisself, shows how to use himself correctly, explains why hisself exists, and gives you practical examples you can remember.

Himself or Hisself: Which One Is Correct?

The quick answer

In standard modern English, use himself.

Hisself is documented in dictionaries, but it is generally classified as nonstandard, dialectal, or vernacular rather than the standard reflexive form.

Word	Standard English?	Main use
himself	Yes	Standard reflexive pronoun and emphatic pronoun
hisself	No, generally nonstandard	Dialectal or informal usage

For example:

• Correct in standard English: He taught himself to cook.
• Nonstandard/dialectal: He taught hisself to cook.

The first sentence is appropriate for standard written English.

Why himself is the standard form

Himself is the reflexive form associated with he.

The basic pattern is:

• I → myself
• you → yourself
• he → himself
• she → herself
• it → itself
• we → ourselves
• they → themselves

A reflexive pronoun is normally used when the person affected by an action is the same person who performs the action.

For example:

He blamed himself for the mistake.

The subject is he, and the person receiving the action of blamed is the same person. Therefore, himself is appropriate.

Why hisself can sound natural

The form hisself may seem logical because English has his as a possessive form:

• his book
• his car
• his idea
• his name

A speaker may therefore naturally form his + self = hisself.

This pattern is understandable from a linguistic perspective. In fact, dictionaries document hisself as a historical and dialectal form. However, that does not make it the standard form used in formal modern English.

What Does Himself Mean?

Himself as a reflexive pronoun

The most common grammatical use of himself is as a reflexive pronoun.

It refers back to a male person or, in some contexts, a male animal that is the subject of the sentence.

Examples:

• Daniel introduced himself to the class.
• James hurt himself while playing football.
• The boy looked at himself in the mirror.
• Mark bought himself a new laptop.
• The dog scratched himself.

In each sentence, himself refers back to the subject.

This is one of the fundamental rules of reflexive pronoun usage.

Himself for emphasis

Himself can also emphasize a person.

For example:

The manager himself called me.

Here, himself is not simply completing a reflexive action. It emphasizes that the manager personally made the call.

Compare these sentences:

The manager called me.

The manager himself called me.

The second sentence places extra emphasis on the manager.

You can use this construction when you want to stress that a particular person personally performed an action.

Himself with “by”

Another common expression is by himself.

It generally means that a person did something alone or without assistance.

Examples:

• He fixed the bicycle by himself.
• Tom completed the project by himself.
• The child learned to read by himself.
• He traveled across the country by himself.

In these examples, by himself means something like alone or without help.

Is Hisself a Real Word?

Hisself is documented

It is important to make a distinction between “not standard” and “not a word.”

Hisself is a documented English form. Major dictionaries have entries for it, but they label it as nonstandard or dialectal.

For example, the American Heritage Dictionary records hisself as a form of himself and notes its use in some vernacular American dialects. Collins likewise labels it “not standard.”

So saying that hisself has never existed would be inaccurate.

The better explanation is:

Hisself is an established dialectal/nonstandard form, but himself is the standard form for general formal English.

Why people use hisself

There are several reasons speakers may use hisself.

One is pattern regularization. English reflexive pronouns are not completely uniform.

Consider:

• my + self = myself
• your + self = yourself
• our + selves = ourselves
• his + self might appear logically as hisself

But standard English uses himself, not hisself.

The American Heritage Dictionary explains that dialect speakers may regularize this pattern by extending the possessive-plus-self pattern to forms such as hisself.

In other words, hisself is not necessarily a meaningless mistake. It can reflect a systematic pattern within a dialect.

Hisself in dialect and informal speech

You may encounter hisself in regional speech, historical writing, literature, or dialogue intended to represent a particular variety of English.

For example:

“He done it hisself.”

If a writer deliberately uses this form to reproduce a character’s speech, changing it automatically to himself could remove part of the character’s linguistic identity.

That is very different from using hisself unintentionally in a school essay or business report.

Himself vs Hisself: A Practical Comparison

Side-by-side examples

The easiest way to understand the difference is to compare them directly.

Sentence	Form	Standard English?
He introduced himself.	himself	Yes
He introduced hisself.	hisself	No, generally nonstandard
John taught himself Spanish.	himself	Yes
John taught hisself Spanish.	hisself	No, generally nonstandard
He repaired the car himself.	himself	Yes
He repaired the car hisself.	hisself	No, generally nonstandard
The actor himself answered the question.	himself	Yes
The actor hisself answered the question.	hisself	No, generally nonstandard

For ordinary writing, the choice is straightforward: use himself.

A simple rule to remember

When the subject is he and you need a reflexive pronoun, choose:

he → himself

Not:

he → hisself

This rule works in standard English.

Common mistakes

Here are some frequent examples:

Incorrect in standard English:

He blamed hisself for the accident.

Correct:

He blamed himself for the accident.

Incorrect in standard English:

He bought hisself a new phone.

Correct:

He bought himself a new phone.

Incorrect in standard English:

Robert introduced hisself to the guests.

Correct:

Robert introduced himself to the guests.

The correction is not about changing the meaning. Both forms can be understood. The issue is standard grammatical form and register.

Why Himself or Hisself Matters in Formal Writing

School and academic writing

If you are writing an assignment, examination answer, research paper, or academic essay, himself is the appropriate choice.

For example:

The researcher examined the results himself.

Using hisself in this context may be interpreted as a spelling or grammar error because academic writing generally follows standard English conventions.

Professional communication

The same principle applies to workplace writing.

Use himself in:

• Emails
• Reports
• Presentations
• Business documents
• Resumes
• Cover letters
• Website content
• Formal correspondence

For example:

The director himself approved the proposal.

This sounds natural and follows standard English usage.

Creative writing and dialogue

Creative writing requires more context.

If a character naturally speaks a dialect that uses hisself, an author may intentionally write:

“He fixed it hisself.”

That can be a stylistic decision rather than an accidental error.

However, writers should understand why they are using the form. If the goal is standard narration rather than dialect representation, himself is usually the appropriate choice.

A Real-Life Example: How Dialect Creates Confusion

Hearing a form before learning its standard equivalent

Imagine a student grows up hearing family members say:

“He did it hisself.”

The student hears the expression repeatedly. Because it communicates clearly and follows a pattern that seems logical, the student eventually writes the same form in an English assignment.

The teacher changes hisself to himself.

At first, the student may reasonably ask: “But why? I hear people say it all the time.”

This situation demonstrates an important distinction between language variation and standard written English.

The student’s experience with hisself is not necessarily evidence that the person has misunderstood the meaning of the sentence. Instead, the student has transferred a form from one variety of English into a context that expects the standard variety.

This happens with many language features. People may grow up hearing regional vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar patterns, or expressions that differ from what schools and formal publications normally teach.

The useful lesson is not simply “one group speaks incorrectly.” Language varies according to region, community, situation, and history. Dictionaries can document those forms while still identifying another form as the standard choice for general writing.

For this particular pair, that means hisself can be linguistically meaningful and historically established while himself remains the standard form expected in formal English.

That distinction helps learners avoid two opposite mistakes: treating hisself as the standard form everywhere, or assuming that every person who says hisself is simply making a random error.

What Current Dictionary and Usage Evidence Shows

2025–2026 usage check

Current dictionary resources available in 2026 continue to make a clear distinction between the two forms.

Cambridge Dictionary defines himself as the reflexive form associated with he and gives examples such as “He’d cut himself shaving.” Cambridge also explains that reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and object refer to the same person or thing.

The American Heritage Dictionary has a separate entry for hisself, identifying it as a form of himself used chiefly in Southern and South Midland U.S. vernacular speech. It also discusses similar forms such as theirselves.

Collins Dictionary lists hisself as “not standard” while giving its meaning as himself.

Therefore, the current evidence supports a useful distinction rather than a simple “real word versus fake word” argument:

• Himself: standard English reflexive pronoun.
• Hisself: documented nonstandard/dialectal variant.
• Formal writing: himself is the appropriate choice.
• Dialect representation: hisself may appear intentionally.

What the numbers can and cannot tell us

There is no reliable 2025–2026 official statistic showing that a particular percentage of English speakers use hisself. Claims giving a precise current percentage should therefore be treated cautiously unless they provide a transparent, representative corpus.

Google’s Ngram Viewer is useful for examining historical book-corpus patterns, but it is not a direct survey of what people currently say. Google’s documentation also notes that the corpus and datasets have changed over time and that the tool measures occurrences in books rather than everyday speech.

That limitation matters. A word can occur in literature because an author is representing dialect, quoting speech, or using historical language. Such occurrences do not automatically tell us how common the form is in present-day conversation.

For a grammar question like this, dictionary labeling and grammatical function are more useful evidence than an unsupported percentage.

How to Use Himself Correctly

Use himself when the action returns to the subject

Use himself when he performs an action that affects him.

Examples:

• He shaved himself.
• He introduced himself.
• He blamed himself.
• He injured himself.
• He taught himself mathematics.
• He prepared himself for the interview.

The subject and reflexive pronoun refer to the same person.

Use himself for emphasis

You can also use himself when you want to emphasize that a particular man personally performed an action.

Examples:

• The president himself signed the document.
• David himself designed the website.
• The teacher himself explained the lesson.
• The chef himself prepared the meal.

Here, the word adds emphasis.

Use “by himself” for doing something alone

Examples:

• He completed the assignment by himself.
• He built the table by himself.
• He traveled by himself.
• He learned the skill by himself.

A useful memory trick is:

himself = reflexive or emphasis
by himself = alone or without help

Common Questions About Himself and Hisself

Q1:Is “hisself” grammatically correct?

Hisself is not the standard English reflexive form. It is documented as a dialectal or nonstandard form meaning himself. For standard writing, use himself.

Q2:Is “hisself” a real English word?

Yes. Dictionaries document hisself, but its status is different from himself. It is generally labeled nonstandard or dialectal rather than standard English.

Q3:Why do some people say “hisself”?

Some speakers use hisself as part of a regional or vernacular variety of English. Its formation can also be understood as a regularization of the reflexive-pronoun pattern: his + self.

Q4:Should I use “hisself” in an essay?

Generally, no. If your essay is written in standard English, use himself.

For example:

He completed the project himself.

Q5:Can “hisself” be used in a story?

Yes, if it is being used intentionally to represent a character’s dialect, speech style, historical setting, or regional language. The context matters.

Q6:What is the reflexive pronoun for “he”?

The standard reflexive pronoun for he is himself.

The main set includes:

• I → myself
• you → yourself
• he → himself
• she → herself
• it → itself
• we → ourselves
• they → themselves

Q7:Is “he did it by hisself” correct?

In standard English, write:

He did it by himself.

Hisself may occur in dialectal speech, but himself is the standard form.

Q8:What is the difference between “himself” and “hisself”?

Himself is the standard English reflexive and emphatic pronoun. Hisself is a documented nonstandard or dialectal variant with essentially the same intended reference.

Quick Checklist: Himself or Hisself?

Before publishing or submitting your writing, use this checklist:

• Is the subject he?
• Do you need a reflexive pronoun?
• Does the pronoun refer back to the same person?
• Are you writing in standard English?
• Are you using the word for emphasis?
• Do you mean “alone” in the phrase by himself?

If the answer is yes, choose himself.

Remember this example

He repaired the computer himself.

Not:

He repaired the computer hisself.

And:

He completed the task by himself.

Not:

He completed the task by hisself.

Conclusion: Himself or Hisself?

So, himself or hisself which one should you use?

For standard modern English, the answer is himself.

Himself is the standard reflexive pronoun associated with he. It can show that the subject and object are the same person, add emphasis, or appear in expressions such as by himself.

Hisself, meanwhile, is a documented dialectal and nonstandard form. You may encounter it in regional speech, informal language, historical texts, or dialogue that intentionally represents a particular variety of English. That makes it linguistically interesting, but it does not make it the preferred form for formal standard writing.

The easiest rule is:

He → himself

When you’re writing an essay, email, article, report, or professional document, choose himself.

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References