itself
In Indian English, "itself" is widely used as an emphasis particle rather than a reflexive pronoun — "good itself" means "very good", "today itself" means "this very day" and "here itself" means "right here".
Definitions
In Indian English, "itself" is widely used as an emphasis particle rather than a reflexive pronoun — "good itself" means "very good", "today itself" means "this very day" and "here itself" means "right here". The construction is a syntactic carry-over from Hindi (and to a lesser extent Tamil), where emphasis is normally added via a post-particle ("hi" / "tane"). Speakers of standard British or American English typically read these phrases as ungrammatical or redundant, but in South Asian English they are completely natural and convey precise emphasis. The pattern is most visible in time-and-place expressions: "now itself", "yesterday itself", "this office itself".
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Related terms
Semantically related
- theyselves67%
A nonstandard or dialectal reflexive pronoun used in place of 'themselves,' common in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) and various regional dialects across the US and UK. It follows a consistent internal logic — paralleling 'myself,' 'yourself,' 'himself,' and 'herself' by using the subject pronoun form rather than the possessive. In AAVE in particular, it is a fully functional grammatical feature rather than an error, and appears in both spoken and written vernacular expression.
- what only66%
A tag particle of emphasis from Tamil and Telugu English speakers — "what-only happened?" means "what on earth happened?". A direct calque from Dravidian-language grammar where the emphasis particle "thaan" (Tamil) or "ē" (Telugu) attaches to a question word for added force. Comes across as quirky to North Indian and outside-South-Asian English speakers, but it is a fully grammatical and very expressive feature of South Indian English. Often appears in mild exasperation or wonder — "where-only did you go?", "why-only is this happening?" — and is one of the most recognisable markers of South Indian English speech online.
- ownself65%
(now, chiefly, regional, especially, southern US, Caribbean, Singlish) (One's) self; used with a preceding possessive adjective to form a pronominal phrase.
- theyself62%
Theyself is the AAVE reflexive form of the singular gender-neutral pronoun they — meaning themselves when referring to one person. As singular they has gone mainstream for gender-neutral reference, theyself offers a natural reflexive companion. It fills a genuine grammatical gap and reflects the organic way language communities adapt pronoun systems. You'll hear it in AAVE-rooted speech and increasingly in everyday informal English from younger speakers.
- tension61%
In South Asian English, tension is overwhelmingly used as a noun meaning "anxiety", "stress" or "worry" rather than the physical-force sense it usually has in British and American English. Borrowed in this sense from Hindi/Urdu usage, where "tension" sits at the same semantic spot as "stress" in English ("Tension mat lo" = "Don't take tension" = "Don't stress"). Common in casual speech ("itni tension mat lo, beta"), in office chat ("client is giving me tension") and in advertising for everything from chyawanprash to head-massage oil. The verb collocations are distinctive: tension is something you "take", "give" or "have", rather than something you "feel".