Difference in meaning

Well, sort of yes, sort of no.

Both sentences could mean that she did it alone. Sentence number two states unequivocally that she did it alone. However, sentence one could be construed in certain contexts as meaning although she did it herself, she may have had help. Sentence two precludes that possibility.

Generally, speaking, absent any other context, most English speakers would probably take these sentences to mean the same thing.

Yeah, that's a hard difference to explain.

She did it herself. More used as emphasis, I think, as in:

I know she didn't go because she told me herself.

So, it'd be a case of she's the one who did it, nobody else, but it's put there for emphasis.


As opposed to:

She did it by herself.

She has no one to blame but herself. She caused all her own misery.

She managed to install the new engine block and she did it by herself.

Nobody helped her, she did it alone.

Mame,


For this meaning - "She has no one to blame but herself. She caused all her own misery."

That would be phrased She did it to herself.

Example: Mary was upset about her weight gain, but she did it to herself by eating so much over the winter.

She did it herself.
Two others watched her do it

She did it by herself.
she did it alone no one watched

Thanks, SULLYFISH66, for the information.

There is a definite difference. "Herself" lays stress on the identity of the subject; "by herself" means "alone".

Suppose I have just laid a new carpet in my living room.

- If I say "I did it myself", I mean to stress that I didn't get someone else (e.g. a professional carpet layer) to do it for me.

But if I say "I did it by myself", I mean to stress that I had no help from anyone.

Quite clever, that.

Sometims (oddly?) round here, if someone says "he built his house extension himself", it can mean that he employed different tradesmen himself, as opposed to appointing a contractor to be in overall charge of all the work.

In that case, most or all of the actual physical work would be done by others.

But you may discount that meaning for the present purposes. I just add it as extra information because it's Christmas.