Russian Reflective Words

Reflexive words are a specific form of verbs and pronouns that demonstrate an action returning to the subject. The way they are expressed in English and Russian differ in a couple of ways. I will show how the Russian language complicates reflexive sentences in this article for English speakers.

In the English language reflexive verbs are distinguished when the subject of a sentence is the receiver of the action. For example, a sentence becomes reflexive when you say something such as Athena loves herself, I cooked myself dinner, or the car surprisingly drove itself. Additionally, there are reflexive verbs in English that do not need take an object and will still be assumed to be reflexive. In other words the receiver of the action is omitted and only the subject and verb is included in the sentence. Sentences like “He washed.”, “They showered.”, and “We shaved.” could seem incomplete at first glance although that isn’t the case. In English these sentences make complete sense. Coming from a third person perspective sentences like “He washed” and “They showered.” get to the point and are complete when you already know how the action was completed.

In order to get the same meaning in Russian there are different steps to take to achieve it. Russian reflexive verbs are distinct from regular verbs for the reason that they end in -ся/-сь instead of -ть. This means that their conjugation differs in the present and past tense. Where in present tense reflexive verbs are conjugated to add -сь in the first person perspective and -ся in the second and third person. The past tense flips this conjugation in the way that -ся is added to the first person past tense of the verb and -сь is added second and third person perspective. It should be noted that these verbs can become non-reflexive or normal simply by removing -ся/-сь from them. Reflecting back to English, Russian also omits the object when reflexive verbs are used so “Мы встретились” would simply mean “We met.” in Russian like in English. Reflexive verbs in Russian also depend on context like in English to be used correctly but the way it is done is different. Russian does not add a reflexive pronoun when a reflexive verb is used sometimes. Which means that words like “yourself, itself, myself, herself, himself, themselves, ourselves” are omitted so Russian and English share similarities in these instances. Usually this occurs when we want to speak about an action that includes two subjects acting on each other and representing actions you do to yourself. Other reasons for using reflexive verbs include actions that are done to the subject, or describing the experience or performance of an emotion, or even representing a state or feeling experienced by a noun in the dative case but in these instances the subject isn’t omitted after the reflexive verb is used. Making the language more confusing is that reflexive verbs ending in -ся/-сь are not always used to make a sentence reflexive. When an action is self directed, sentences in Russian can also use the reflexive pronoun себя.

The usage between себя or -ся/-сь depends on what you want to say. Russian speakers use the reflexive pronoun себя when the action performed is directed onto the person who performs this action. The reflexive pronoun is not distinguished by gender or number but is never a nominative pronoun in Russian. The forms of себя depend on the case: (Genitive/Accusative: себя), (Dative/Prepositional: себе) and (instrumental: собой). This is not what occurs in English as reflexive pronouns are used appropriately with their subject. Check these sentences in English which distinguishes gender and number: “She prides herself on her accomplishments”, “Children should learn how to behave themselves”, and “He prepares himself for the interview”. This shows contrast between the languages. Sentences in Russian that have reflexive verbs usually have to do with taking care of your body or parts. You could learn reflexive verbs in sentences in order to see how they are used without reflexive pronouns and the corresponding transitive verb. Hence, use reflexive verbs without reflexive pronouns in Russian when it is an option but expect detrimental nuances throughout their usages.

Another reflexive pronoun in Russian is the word “сам” and it differs from “себя” too. This word means “self” or “myself” in English. It has gender, number, and case declensions unlike the other reflexive pronoun себя. The nominative forms for it are (сам .m .nom) (сама .f .nom) (само .n .nom) (сами .pl .nom)(самого .m/.n .gen/.acc)(самой .f .gen/.acc/.prep)(самих .pl .gen/.acc/.prep)(самому .m .dat)(самим .pl .dat)(саму .f .dat)(самим .pl .dat)(самими .pl .ins)(самом .m/.n .prep). Some example sentences are “Я сам так решил”, “Она сама справится”, and “Я сам это придумал”. In English it would be used in the way that the subject is directly an agent of an action without outside assistance spontaneously or without external influence. Ex: “She bought herself tickets.”. “Сам” can be used for emphasis or exclusivity of the subject in the sentence. It also can be used for emphasizing the self to indicate participation of an action or drawing contrast with others. Check this example; “Помой посуду! with the reply Сама мой!”. The difference between Russian and English is significant in the sense that pronouns here are all over the place. Unlike in English where pronouns are simply (you & them), Russian has the reflexive pronoun for you and with мой for them. Lastly, I will bring up that there are even expressions that use two reflexive pronouns in the same sentence. Which never occurs in English. Check out the expression “сам собой разумеется – it goes without saying, of course”.

In conclusion, Russian reflexive verbs and pronouns show they can be difficult to grasp for English native speakers since they work with different structures to get the same meaning. There are reflexive verbs that omit the object of the sentence and reflexive pronouns that work with certain transitive verbs. Conjugations of verbs differ between reflexive and transitive verbs. Declensions between the reflexive pronouns in Russian differ too in irregular ways between themselves.