The day after her seventh birthday Alina walked _________ to school for the first time.
Which of the following pronouns correctly completes the sentence above?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

For this example, we use the pronoun "herself" because the subject and object of the sentence both reference the same thing.
The pronoun "herself" is a reflexive pronoun. Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject of the sentence and the object of the verb are the same person or thing. Examples: I couldn't believe I didn't cut myself with that large knife; She was nervous about swimming by herself for the first time.
The pronoun "her" can be used in two situations.
The first is to refer to the speaker when he/she is the object of an action of a verb in some way, either directly or indirectly. You can ask yourself, is the person experiencing the action of the verb in some way? This also means that "her" will be used when the pronoun is being used in the predicate of the sentence. In this example, since the subject and the object of the sentence are the same thing, you would use a reflexive pronoun.
The second way to use "her" is as a possessive pronoun that is used to show ownership. In the case of "her," it would be used to show some sort of ownership that the speaker has over something. The pronoun "hers" would also be used as a possessive. In this example, there is no need for a possessive pronoun as there is no ownership being demonstrated here.
The pronoun "she" is used to refer to the  the subject of a sentence. You can ask yourself, is the person the one doing the action in the sentence?

The Day After Her Seventh Birthday Alina Walked _________ to School