✧ Russian grammar - Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns ✧
Клиентка купила себе юбку. Она носит с собой сумку с заказом.
✧ Reflexive pronoun себя ✧
· The Russian reflexive pronoun is "себя́".
· As a reflexive pronoun, it refers to the subject of the verb it accompanies. Therefore, it does not have a nominative form, since this case functions only as a subject or attribute, whereas reflexive pronouns function as direct objects, indirect objects, and objects with prepositions.
· Its other forms, common to all genders and both numbers, are:
Себя́ – Accusative and genitive
Себе́ – Dative and prepositional
Собо́й/собо́ю – Instrumental
Мой кот обнимает себя, когда спит. – My cat hugs itself while sleeping.
Ты думаешь только о себе. – You only think of yourself.
Она довольна собой. – She is pleased with herself.
Я горжусь собой. - I am proud of myself.
· Do not confuse the reflexive pronoun себя with the endings for reflexive verbs in -ся/-сь. Себя has specific uses that do not exist with reflexive verb endings. Besides a direct object, it expresses:
Он купила себе книгу. – She bought herself a book.
A complement with preposition.
Они разговаривают между собой. – They are talking among themselves.
Я разговариваю с собой. – I talk to myself.
Возьми с собой зонт. – Take an umbrella with you.
A verb whose meaning differs from that of its reflexive counterpart.
Считать себя гением – To consider oneself a genius
Считаться гением – To be considered a genius
Лишать себя – To deprive oneself
Лишаться – To be deprived
· Some words demand the use of себя more arbitrarily:
Представлять собой – To represent, to be
Представля́ть себе́ – To imagine
Чувствовать себя – To feel
Так себе – Regular, so-so
Хорош собой – To be good-looking
Само собой разумеется – It goes without saying
Быть не по себе – To be out of sorts
Не дай себя обмануть – Don’t let yourself be fooled
· Sometimes, the reflexive pronoun can lead to ambiguity when there are two verbs and two different subjects in the sentence:
Мать велела сыну налить себе чаю.
· In this sentence, we should understand that себе refers to the son, so it would be translated as “The mother told the boy to pour himself some tea.”
· To avoid confusion, we can slightly restructure the sentence:
Мать велела, чтобы сын налил себе чаю. - The mother told her son to pour himself some tea,
Мать велела, чтобы сын налил ей чаю. - The mother told her son to pour her some tea.
✧ Reciprocal pronoun друг друга ✧
· When the action is reciprocal, the construction “друг дру́га” is used.
· A reciprocal action implies that person A performs an action on person B and B on A at the same time. In English, this is equivalent to “each other” and its variants.
· In the Russian construction, only the second “друг” changes in case, but not in gender or number.
Она и я любим друг друга. – She and I love each other.
Если вы потеряли друг друга, встречайтесь в центре ГУМА. – If you lose track of each other, meet at the GUM center.
Мы нравимся друг другу. – We like each other.
· Sometimes, however, a verb in -ся/-сь will be used.
Увидимся! - See you! [Lit. "We'll see each other"]
Давайте познакомимся. - Let's meet each other.
