OURSELVES

[pronoun]We promised ourselves a good holiday this year.Will we be able to do it ourselves or will we need help?We told ourselves it would be easy.It's a big garden, but we do all the gardening (by) ourselves (= without help).We think we will have to go by ourselves (= without other people) as everyone else is busy.The hotel was very quiet so we had the swimming pool all to ourselves (= we did not have to share it with other people).We enjoyed having the house to ourselves (= not having to share it with other people) again after our visitors had left.(formal) Ourselves can be used to emphasize the subject.We ourselves realize that there are flaws in the scheme.