Reflexive sebe/se

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

The reflexive sebe/se: “oneself” in every case

There is one short word you have already said dozens of times without taking it apart: zovem se (“my name is”, literally “I call myself”), kako se zoveš (“what’s your name?”), vidimo se (“see you”). Behind that se stands a whole pronoun, the reflexive one, Serbian for “oneself”, and like the personal pronouns of the last lesson it has a set of full forms and a set of short ones.

A reflexive pronoun is special: it always points back at the subject. Whoever does the action also receives it: “I wash myself”, “you praise yourself”, “they are pleased with themselves”. English does this job with its -self words; Serbian uses sebe and its short partner se. Let us see how Serbian declines them and when it picks which form.

One paradigm for every case

There are only a few forms, so learn them in one go. No nominative, by definition; the accusative and the genitive share sebe, the dative and the locative share sebi, and the instrumental is sobom.

The accusative has a short form, se, just as me, te, ga serve the personal pronouns; the dative has one too, but it is rare (si). The genitive, the instrumental and the locative have full forms only. And after a preposition the form is always full: short forms never live after a preposition, a rule you already know from the lesson “Full & clitic pronoun forms”.

Kupio je, “he bought”, is a past form built like Radio sam “I worked” in “biti in the present”; “The perfect (perfekat)” covers it in full.

One form for every person

Here Serbian is simpler than English. English has to change its reflexive word for each person: myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, themselves. Serbian makes do with one word for all of them: sebe fits “I”, “you” and “they” alike.

All of them have the same sebe (or sebi, “for oneself”), although the person is different each time. Only the verb changes. That is the heart of “reflexive”: a single mirror word that reflects whatever the subject happens to be. So “myself” and “yourself” are sebe as well, not mene or tebe.

Reflexive or personal: who is being washed?

The key question when you choose a pronoun: is the object the same person as the subject? Use the reflexive sebe/se only when the action comes back to the doer. When the object is someone else, you need an ordinary personal pronoun (ga, je, ih…), which you know from the lesson “Full & clitic pronoun forms”.

Cheat sheet

The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.

The reflexive sebe/se: “oneself” in every case

Use sebe when the object is the same person as the subject. No nominative (“oneself” is never the subject), no gender, no number: one form for every person, where English needs myself, yourself, themselves: Ja mislim na sebe, Ti misliš na sebe, Oni misle na sebe, Kupio sam sebi knjigu; only the verb changes. Two sets: full (stressed) and short (clitic).

The whole paradigm

Dative clitic si is rare in Serbia, where Kupi sebi nešto (buy yourself something) is usual; Kupi si nešto, Uzmi si are heard more further west. Not the verb si “you are”. Examples: Perem se (I’m washing), Kupio je sebi nov telefon (he bought himself a new phone), Nezadovoljan je sobom (unhappy with himself), Priča samo o sebi (talks only about himself).

Reflexive or personal

Object = subject: On pere sebe (himself; calmly On se pere). Someone else: On ga pere (him). Emphatic: sam + reflexive, agreeing (sam/sama): Poznaj samog sebe (know thyself), Ostala je sama sa sobom (alone with herself).

Three jobs of se

se or sebe

Default: clitic se in second place: Perem se, Ja se perem, Uvek se perem. Full form: after a preposition (za sebe, o sebi, sa sobom, pred sobom, u sebi); under stress (Sebe krivi, ne mene.); first or alone (Sebe nikad ne štedi.). Ponesi dokumente sa sobom (take the documents with you), Zadrži to za sebe (keep that to yourself), Duboko u sebi (deep down).

Set phrases

dođi sebi pull yourself together · doći k sebi come round · van sebe beside oneself · sam po sebi in itself · među sobom among themselves · puna sebe full of herself