Reflexive pronouns in Russian are relatively easy to learn. Actually, there’s only one pronoun that we should keep in mind first.
It’s the pronoun “себя”, Russian version of ‘self’.
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Себя (себе, собой, о себе)
We don’t change its form depending on gender or number. But don’t forget that we have cases!
Case | Pronoun |
Nominative | |
Genitive | себя |
Dative | себе |
Accusative | себя |
Instrumental | собой |
Prepositional | (o) себе |
Examples:
Он говорит о себе. – He talks about himself.
Она любит книги и считает себя интеллигентной дамой. – She loves books and considers himself an intelligent lady.
Я чувствую себя счастливым. – I feel happy. (Notice that we always use the verb чувствовать with the reflexive pronoun when talking about the subject’s feelings).
Я купил себе новую машину. – I bought myself a new car.
Вы, кажется, довольны собой. – You seem pleased with yourself.
See Also: Personal Pronouns in Russian
And now the most difficult part. Well, maybe.
We can add the suffix -ся to some verbs to indicate that an action is directed onto the person who performs the action. In other words, we often use the verb with -ся instead of reflexive pronouns. And you should remember these verbs:
мыться – то wash yourself
умываться – to wash face (if you do it yourself)
расчёсываться – to comb hair (if you do it yourself)
одеваться – to get dressed (if you do it yourself)
раздеваться – to get undressed (if you do it yourself)
обуваться – to put on shoes (if you do it yourself)
разуваться – to put on shoes (if you do it yourself)
and other verbs
Свой (своя, своё, свои)
Свой is a reflexive possessive pronoun and it means “one’s own”. You can read more about it in the article about possessive pronouns in Russian.
Examples:
Он любит меня как свою дочь. – He loved me as his own daughter.
Одно из самых важных событий в жизни человека – обретение своего дома. – One of the most important achievements in life is having your own home.
Друг друга
It’s a reciprocal pronoun, wich corresponds to English ‘each other/one another’.
Here we have two words (nouns), the first one doesn’t change at all, but the second one declines as an ordinary noun.
Case | Pronoun |
Nominative | |
Genitive | друг друга, друг от друга |
Dative | друг другу, друг к другу |
Accusative | друг друга, друг про друга |
Instrumental | друг другом, друг с другом |
Prepositional | друг о друге |
Examples:
Это возможность получше узнать друг друга. – It’s an opportunity to get to know each other better.
Мы должны помогать друг другу. – We should help each other.
Эти двое не ладят друг с другом. – Those two don’t get along.