Experience III, Lesson 1: Reflexive

Learning reflexive pronouns and reflexive possessive adjectives

A reflexive pronoun / possesive adjective means

a) it reflects something

b) it gets its meaning from the subject of its clause / sentence (the subject can be direct, indirect or logical)

Some examples

reflexive pronoun: We speak among ourselves.

reflexive possesive adjective: I read my books. You must to do your own work

The reflexive exists for all persons

N.B.

• A pronoun is reflexive when it refers back to the subject.
• The possessive suum is third person, singular or plural (id, ea, id, ei, eae, and ea). Thus it can mean: his (own), her (own), its (own), one's (own), their (own).
• "facit suum opus" can mean: he does his work, she does her work, etc.

• What we learned about the possessive pronouns "eius" and "eorum" in Lesson I-26 still applies. Moreover: eius and eorum are used when they're not reflexive - referring to someone other than the subject; suus,-a,-um is always reflexive - referring back to the subject of the [nearest] verb.

• The pronouns sui, se, sibi and secum can mean: himself, herself, itself, oneself, themselves.
• "lauda se" can mean: he is praising himself, she is praising herself, etc.

"I just celebrated fifty years of Latin, and I still look up words in the dictionary." - Fr. Foster

Third Experience Latin - Fr. Reginald Foster

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