Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject of the verb (Ex: I praise myself; he sees himself; versus: I see him; he praises me), so they can only appear in the predicate and cannot be the subject of finite verbs. Therefore, they have no nominative case. Otherwise, they decline in the 1st and 2nd person just like the personal pronouns do. NB which form of the genitive plural personal pronoun is used: nostrī, vestrī.

3rd Sg/Pl
Nom / (DNE)
Gen / suī
Dat / sibi
Acc / sē
Abl / sē

Third person reflexive pronouns are the same for singular and plural. (Since they refer to the subject of the verb, it is not necessary to differentiate, since the verb endings will tell us if the subject is singular or plural.) The forms are just like those of the 2nd person singular, but with an s- instead of a t-.

Reflexive Possessives

The reflexive possessives of the 1st and 2nd person are the same as the regular possessives we’ve already learned (meus, -a, -um; tuus, -a, -um; noster, -tra, -trum; vester, -tra, -trum) Reflexive possessives of the 3rd person are the adjectives suus, -a, -um. Like any adjective, it agrees with what it modifies in gender, number, and case. But when we translate it to English, however, we have to reflect the gender and number of the subject to which it refers (ex: her own, its own, his own, their own) We must be careful not to be confused between the reflexive possessive suus and the not reflexive possessive genitives eius, eōrum, and eārum, which do NOT refer back to the subject.

The Intensive Pronoun Ipse, Ipsa, Ipsum

Ipse, ipsa, ipsum follows the declensional pattern of the demonstratives in the genitive and dative singular (ie ipsīus, ipsī). Otherwise, it declines like a regular 1st/2nd declension adjective. This pronoun is used to emphasize a noun or pronoun of any person in any case. We translate it into English as myself/ourselves, yourself/yourselves, or himself/herself/itself/theirselves, depending on what it modifies. We can also translate it as the very or the actual.