Swedish reflexive verbs: känna sig, lära sig, gifta sig
The Swedish verbs that carry a self pronoun, how sig works across the persons, and the meaning gap between känner sig trött and känner henne.
Some Swedish verbs come with a built-in "self": you don't just feel, you feel yourself (känna sig); you don't just learn, you teach yourself (lära sig); and two people marrying are, charmingly, marrying themselves (gifta sig). The little pronoun changes with the subject, and in the third person it's sig, first cousin of the sin you've already met.
The reflexive pronouns
They're the object pronouns you know, with one systematic swap: every third person form becomes sig (pronounced "sej").
Like sin, the word sig always points back at the subject of its own clause. Hon känner sig trött is about how she herself feels; Hon känner henne means she knows some other woman. Same verb, different pronoun, different world.
The generic man takes sig too: Man lär sig mycket här. You learn a lot here.
The reflexive verbs you'll need first
- känna sig: to feel. Jag känner mig hemma här. I feel at home here.
- lära sig: to learn. Jag lär mig svenska. I'm learning Swedish. (Literally: I teach myself Swedish. Lära alone means teach.)
- gifta sig: to get married. De gifter sig i juni.
- sätta sig: to sit down. Sätt dig! Have a seat!
- skynda sig: to hurry. Skynda dig! Hurry up!
- tvätta sig: to wash (oneself). Barnen tvättar sig före maten. The children wash up before the meal.
Notice the imperatives: the pronoun stays and matches the person you're talking to, Sätt dig to one person, Sätt er to several.
Swedish is choosier than you might expect about which everyday actions are reflexive: showering is plain jag duschar, no pronoun. When you learn a new verb, learn whether sig belongs to it, the same way you learn a noun's en or ett.
Hear the reflexives
Five sentences you can use this week.
Swedish
Jag känner mig trött i dag.
Vi lär oss svenska tillsammans.
De gifter sig i juni.
Sätt dig här!
Skynda dig, bussen kommer!
English
I feel tired today.
We're learning Swedish together.
They're getting married in June.
Sit down here!
Hurry up, the bus is coming!