Lesson 083

Russian pronoun СЕБЯ

Себя́ in Russian means “self” and, as in English, refers to the subject of the sentence. In other words себя́ can mean “myself”, “yourself”, “himself”, “themselves” etc.

Declension of the pronoun себя

The pronoun себя́ doesn’t change in gender and number but changes in different cases as follows:

себя́Genitive
себе́Dative
себя́Accusative
собо́йInstrumental
себе́Prepositional

Examples

Я себя́ за э́то ненави́жу.
I hate myself for that. (Accusative)

Ты себя́ слы́шишь?
Do you hear yourself? (Accusative)

Она́ не по́мнит себя́ от ра́дости.
She doesn’t remember herself of joy. (Accusative)

Мы са́ми сде́лали себе́ пра́здник.
We made a holiday for ourselves (on our own). (Dative)

Посмотри́те на себя́ со стороны́.
Look at yourselves from an outsider’s viewpoint. (Accusative)

Они́ собо́й гордя́тся.
They are proud of themselves. (Instrumental)

Russian Pod 101

Pay attention

Russians often use the reflexive pronoun себя́ when the English speakers use just a personal pronoun.

Возьми́ меня́ с собо́й!
Take me with you!

Она положи́ла су́мку ря́дом с собо́й.
She put the bag next to her.

Practice today’s examples with the audio track.

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