Summary: We continue to review some important Russian grammar point and dedicate today's lesson to the two Russian pronouns: сам and себя. We'll cover the declension of this pronouns in different cases and give some examples sentences in order to help all Russian learners to master their use. Read the lesson and listen to the audio recording which contains all today's examples. Fell free to listen to the audio as many times as you need until all the words sound familiar. http://everydayrussianlanguage.com/audio/first-steps/sam-sebya.mp3 Download the audio file of this lesson Russian reflexive pronoun себя means 'self', and as the reflexive possessive pronoun свой is used to refer back to the subject of the sentence. But let's start from reviewing how it changes in different cases (себя doesn't change in gender and number). Genitive себя Dative себе́ Accusative себя́ Instrumental собо́й Prepositional себе́ Translated from English, себя can mean 'myself', 'yourself', 'themselves' etc. Я купи́л себе́ но́вые боти́нки. - I bought new shoes for myself. (Dative) Поду́май о себе́! - Think about yourself! (Prepositional) Она́ ду́мает то́лько о себе́. - She thinks only about herself. (Prepositional) Он горди́тся собо́й. - He is proud of himself. (Instrumental) Мы стро́им себе́ дом. - We are building a house for ourselves. (Dative) Remember: Very often in Russian the reflexive pronoun себя is used instead of personal pronouns: Вы себе́ так здоро́вье испо́ртите. - You will ruin your health this way. (Dative) Я возьму́ с собо́й большо́й чемода́н. - I'll take a big suitcase with me. (Instrumental) Сам is the emphatic definite pronoun. Russians use it to emphasize the subject which is performing an action. Сам changes in gender, number and cases as follows: masculine feminine neuter plural Nominative сам сама́ само́ са́ми Genitive самого́ само́й самого́ сами́х Dative самому́ само́й самому́ сами́м Accusative самого́ саму́ самого́ сами́х Instrumental сами́м само́й сами́м сами́ми Prepositional само́м само́й само́м сами́х Ты сам по́нял, что сказа́л? - Did you understood yourself what you said? (masculine, Nominative) Я сама́ всё сде́лаю. - I'll do everything myself. (feminine, Nominative) Э́то авто́граф самого́ президе́нта. - This is the sign of the president itself. (masculine, Genitive) Сам very often comes along with себя: Я сам себя́ не слы́шу. - I don't hear myself. (себя́ - masculine, Accusative) Они́ са́ми себе́ испо́ртили вечери́нку. - They ruined their party by themselves. (себе́ - plural, Dative) Она́ разгова́ривает сама́ с собо́й. - She is talking to herself. (собо́й - feminine, Instrumental)
