Reflexive Pronouns
प्रतिवर्ती सर्वनाम (Reflexive Pronouns)
English marks 'doing something to oneself' with a dedicated, person-matched set of -self words, while Hindi often skips a reflexive pronoun altogether — reaching instead for an experiencer construction, or, when it does use a reflexive, relying on a single invariant word (खुद / अपने आप) that never changes for person, number, or gender the way myself/himself/themselves do.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
myself as a mandatory, explicit word — where Hindi may use no reflexive pronoun at all
I hurt myself. (myself is a separate, required word)
मुझे चोट लग गई। (literally 'injury befell me' — an experiencer construction with no reflexive pronoun needed at all)
For many everyday 'happened to me' situations, Hindi doesn't reach for a reflexive pronoun at all — it recasts the sentence around the experiencer in the dative (मुझे, 'to me') plus a verb like लगना ('to strike/befall'), so चोट लग गई already carries the sense of 'I got hurt' without any word standing in for 'myself'. English insists on the explicit self-word every time the subject and object of a verb are the same person: 'I hurt myself' cannot drop myself. Watch for sentences your Hindi instinct would phrase as 'X happened to me' — English often recasts these with a subject deliberately acting on their own -self instead.
When Hindi does mark the reflexive, it uses one invariant word — not a set that changes by person
He looked at himself in the mirror. / They enjoyed themselves. (himself, themselves — a different word for each person/number)
उसने आईने में खुद को देखा। / उन्होंने खूब मज़ा किया। (खुद/अपने आप stays the same word no matter who's doing it)
When Hindi does need an explicit reflexive, खुद or अपने आप do the job — and critically, the same word covers 'myself', 'himself', 'themselves', and everything in between; only the surrounding pronoun (मैंने, उसने, उन्होंने) shows who's involved. English instead conjugates the reflexive itself: myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, and themselves are six different words matched to person, number, and even gender. Expect to consciously pick the right -self word every time, since Hindi's खुद/अपने आप gives you no built-in reminder to vary the form.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
| English | Pronunciation | Hindi |
|---|---|---|
| I hurt myself. | eye hurt my-SELF | मुझे चोट लग गई।mujhe coṭ lag gaī. |
| Don't hurt yourself. | dohnt hurt yor-SELF | अपने आप को चोट मत पहुँचाओ।apne āp ko coṭ mat pahuñcāo. |
| He looked at himself in the mirror. | hee lookt at him-SELF | उसने आईने में खुद को देखा।usne āīne meñ khud ko dekhā. |
| They enjoyed themselves. | thay en-JOYD them-SELVZ | उन्होंने खूब मज़ा किया।unhoñne khūb mazā kiyā. |