student asking question

What does "ourselves" mean here? I don't see what's the different between with and without "ourselves" here.

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

You are correct. The "ourselves" in this sentence is technically not necessary. However, Gru has used this to compare the situation of his minions and himself with the criminals who "stole the pyramids." By using "ourselves" here, he is making a contrast between them and the other party. Thus, we can understand "we have had a pretty good year ourselves" to mean "[compared to them] we have had a pretty good year ourselves." Ex: A: How was your harvest this year? We had a great one. B: We had a pretty good one ourselves. Ex: A: How was your weekend? We went up to the cottage. B: That sounds fun! We had a good one ourselves, we visited a winery.

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