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  7.3.1 Reflexive pronouns in Italian - summary

From a philosophical point of view you can say that reflexive pronouns are just object pronouns. They indicate that the agent of the action and the goal of this action are the same person. In English the object pronouns are different from the reflexive pronouns (me <=> myself, him <=> himself, us <=> ourselves and so on) but in the overwhelming majority of languages that's not the case, most of the languages distinguish between object pronouns and reflexive pronouns only in the third person because only in the third person this is really necessary.

~I wash me.
I wash myself.

=> "I wash me" is wrong, but there is no difference in meaning.

I wash him.
I wash myself.

=> In the third person there is a big difference in meaning, therefore in any language there is a special form for the reflexive pronoun in the third person.

Italian belongs to this majority of languages. Only in the third person singular and plural there is a difference between the object pronoun and the reflexive pronoun because only in this case this is really needed. On the other side it is sometimes very useful to see that a reflexive pronoun can be a direct and an indirect object.

directe object
Mi sono lavato. => Chi ho lavato? Mi
=> (I washed myself. => Who did I wash? myself.)
indirect object
Mi sono comprato una macchina. => A chi ho comprato una macchina? A mi.
=> (I bought a car for myself. => For whom did I buy a car. => For myself.)

Pay attention to the fact, that Mi sono comprato una macchina doesn't mean I bought a car myself (possibly for someone else) but I bought a car for myself.

I bought a car myself would be Ho comprato una macchina io stesso.

We can distinguish three different uses of the reflexive pronoun.

1) A reflexive pronoun is used to stress that the action has been realised by the subject himself
myself = Io stesso (I bought a car myself => Ho comprato una macchina io stesso)
yourself = Tu stesso (You bought a car yourself => Hai comprato una macchina tu stesso)
herself = Lei stessa (She bought a car herself => Ha comprato una macchina lei stessa)
himself = Lui stesso (He bought a car himself => Ha comprato una macchina lui stesso)
ourselves masc. = Noi stessi (We bought a car ourselves => Abbiamo comprato una macchina noi stessi)
ourselves fem. = Noi stesse (We bought a car ourselves => Abbiamo comprato una macchina noi stesse)
yourselves masc. = Voi stessi (You bought a car yourselves => Avete comprato una macchina voi stessi)
yourselves fem. = Voi stesse (You bought a car yourselves => Avete comprato una macchina voi stesse)
themselves masc.= Loro stessi (They bought a car themselves => Hanno comprato una macchina loro stessi)
themselves fem.= Loro stesse (They bought a car themselves => Hanno comprato una macchina loro stesse)

2) A reflexive pronoun is used as well to describe that the subject of the sentence is the agent as well as the goal of the action described by the verb. (The distinction between We see ourselves and We see us doesn' t exist in Italian. The meaning must be deduced from the context.)

myself = mi ( I see myself => Mi vedo)
yourself = ti ( I see you => Ti vedo)
herself = si (She sees herself => Si vede)
himself = si (She sees himself => Si vede)
ourselves = ci (We see ourselves => Ci vediamo)
us = ci (We see us => Ci vediamo)
yourself = vi (You see yourselves => Vi vedete)
themselves = si (They see themselves => Si vedono)

3) A reflexive pronoun is used together with of preposition. In this case special attention is to be given to the preposition required by the verb, a literal translation is not possible in general. In Italian we use NEVER a reflexive pronoun after prepositions. Together with prepositions we use the the prepositional pronouns. It doesn' t work therefore as in English.


for, about etc. myself = per, di etc. me
I did it for myself => Lo ho fatto per me (stesso).
You talked about yourself => Hai parlato di te (stesso).
He talked about himself. => Ha parlato di se stesso.

Only in the case 2 the reflexive pronoun in Italian corresponds to the reflexive pronoun in English. In the other cases a word-for-word translation is not possible.

Summary: reflexive pronouns   


nominativ
Italian English
io I
tu you
lui he
lei she
noi we
voi you
loro (masc.) they
loro (fem.) they
la polite (sing., masc.)
la polite (sing., fem.)
Voi / Loro polite (plur., masc.)
Voi / Loro polite (plur., fem.)

accusativ
Italian English
mi me
ti you
lo him
la her
ci us
ci us
li they
le they
Lei you
Lei you
li you
le you



dativ
Italian English
mi me
ti you
gli him
le her
ci us
ci us
gli / loro they
le / loro they
le you
le you
vi / loro you
vi / loro you

reflexive pronoun
Italian English
mi myself
ti yourself
si himself
si herself
ci ourselves
vi yourselves
si themselves
si themselves
si yourself
si yourself
si yourself
si yourself


Summary (without translation) :    
nominative accusative dative reflexive pronoun
io mi mi mi
tu ti ti ti
lui lo gli si
lei la le si
noi ci ci ci
voi vi vi vi
loro (masc.) li gli / loro si
loro (fem.) Voi / Loro gli / loro si
polite (sing.,masc.) Lei le si
polite (sing.,fem.) Lei le si
polite (plur.,masc.) Li vi / loro si
polite (plur.,masc.) Le vi / loro si






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