1. Latin Grammar Reflexives: sē suus, -a, -um (Grammar 3B, p. 160)

2. Reflexive Pronouns  Reflexive pronouns in English end in –self or –selves. They exist in all three persons and both numbers. SINGULARPLURAL 1 st PERSON: myselfourselves 2 nd PERSON: yourselfyourselves 3 rd PERSON: himself, herself, itselfthemselves

3. Reflexive Pronouns  Reflexive means bending [flex] back [re].  They are called reflexive pronouns because they indicate that the action of a verb has bent back to affect the subject of a sentence. I love myself. The girls hurt themselves.

4. Reflexive Pronouns  In Latin, the reflexive pronouns look like the normal personal pronouns in the first and second person singular and plural.  In the third person singular and plural, Latin’s reflexive pronoun is sē. SINGULARPLURAL 1 st PERSON: mēnōs 2 nd PERSON: tēuōs 3 rd PERSON: sē

5. Reflexive Pronouns  Examples: I love myself =mē amō. you love yourself =tē amās he loves himself =sē amat. she loves herself =sē amat we love ourselves =nōs amāmus y’all love yourselves =uōs amātis they love themselves =sē amant

6. Declension o f sē tū tē tuī tibi tē — sē suī sibi sē

7. suus, -a, -um  So that is Latin’s reflexive pronoun sē.  We now have to talk about Latin’s reflexive possessive adjective suus, -a, -um.

8. suus, -a, -um  Latin’s personal pronouns have possessive adjectives associated with them: ego =>meus, -a, -um tū =>tuus, -a, -um nōs =>noster, nostra, nostrum uōs =>uester, uestra, uestrum

9. suus, -a, -um  But remember, there is no third person pronoun.  And, not surprisingly therefore, there is actually no possessive adjective that means his, her, its, or their.  Instead, Romans used the genitive of is, ea, id. (eius in the singular; eōrum or eārum in the plural).  eius = his, her, its  eōrum, eārum = their

10. suus, -a, -um  Possessive adectives (meus, tuus, noster, uester) have to agree in gender, case, and number with what they describe. stilum tuum uīdī. stilus tuus est in aedibus.  However, because the words for his, her, and their are NOT possessive adjectives in Latin, they never change to agree in gender, case and number. stilum eius uidī. stilus eius est in aedibus.

11. suus, -a, -um  The reflexive pronoun, however, does have a possessive adjective.  It is suus, -a, -um, and it must agree with what it describes. Marcus suum patrem uīdit, Iulia suās sorōrēs uīdit.

12. suus, -a, -um  IMPORTANT POINT  In Latin, you must distinguish between the reflexive possessive and the genitive forms eius, eōrum, eārum. Marcus patrem suum uīdit Marcus patrem eius uīdit.

13. suus, -a, -um  In English, this statement is ambiguous: John saw his father  Is his father John’s father or someone else’s?  In Latin, you must distinguish between the reflexive possessive and eius, eōrum, eārum. Marcus patrem suum uīdit Marcus patrem eius uīdit.