The little word self does two very different jobs in Afrikaans, and English speakers routinely collapse them into one. Attached to a pronoun it intensifies the subject — Ek het dit self gedoen, "I did it myself", meaning I and nobody else. Standing alone before a noun phrase it means "even" — Self die kinders het gehelp, "Even the children helped". Neither of these is the reflexive -self you met on reflexive pronouns, where homself marks that the object is the same person as the subject. This page is about the emphatic and "even" uses; the reflexive object lives on its own page. Keeping the three apart is what separates a confident speaker from a confused one.
The emphatic set: ekself, jouself, homself, haarself, onsself, hulleself
When you want to stress that the subject itself — not an agent, not a deputy, not someone acting on their behalf — carried out the action, you add self to the pronoun. The forms are:
| Pronoun | Emphatic form | English |
|---|---|---|
| ek | ekself | I myself |
| jy | jouself | you yourself |
| u | uself | you yourself (formal) |
| hy | homself | he himself |
| sy | haarself | she herself |
| ons | onsself | we ourselves |
| julle | julleself | you yourselves |
| hulle | hulleself | they themselves |
Ek het dit self gedoen, sonder enige hulp.
I did it myself, without any help.
Sy het dit self gemaak — dis nie 'n winkelkoek nie.
She made it herself — it's not a shop-bought cake.
Ek self het gekom om jou te bedank.
I myself came to thank you.
Note the placement freedom. The intensifier can sit right after the subject (ek self het gekom) or float to a position after the verb, next to the rest of the predicate (ek het dit self gedoen). English allows the same two slots — "I myself came" versus "I did it myself" — so the logic transfers cleanly. What does not transfer is the spelling, which we deal with below.
Solid or separate: homself but ek het dit self gedoen
This is the one piece of orthography to nail down. When self attaches directly to a pronoun as a single intensifying word, write it solid: ekself, jouself, homself, haarself, onsself, hulleself. When self floats away from the subject and lands later in the clause — typically after the verb, next to the object — it is written separately as its own word.
Hy het homself in die voet geskiet.
He shot himself in the foot.
Hy het self die brief geskryf.
He wrote the letter himself.
The first sentence has the reflexive/solid homself (he is the one shot — same person as subject). The second has the floating adverbial self (he, personally, did the writing). Because the emphatic so often floats, you will write it separately more often than not. A safe working rule: if self sits glued to the pronoun, write it solid; if there is a verb or object between the subject and self, write self on its own.
Ons het die huis self geverf.
We painted the house ourselves.
Die direkteur self het die prys oorhandig.
The director himself handed over the prize.
self after a noun: die direkteur self
The intensifier is not limited to pronouns. It attaches to a full noun phrase to mean "(the X) in person, no less". Here it always follows the noun and is always written separately.
Die minister self het dit bevestig.
The minister himself confirmed it.
Die president self het die slagoffers besoek.
The president himself visited the victims.
Die boek self is goed, maar die vertaling is swak.
The book itself is good, but the translation is poor.
This use foregrounds that the named entity, and not a representative, is involved — exactly the English "the minister himself". Afrikaans does not change self for gender or number here; it is invariant after any noun, where English would juggle himself / herself / itself / themselves.
self as an adverb meaning "even"
Now the use that English handles with a completely different word. Placed before a noun phrase — at the front of the constituent rather than after it — self means "even". This is a separate lexical item, an adverb, and it surprises learners because the same four letters mean something so different depending on position.
Self die kinders het gehelp.
Even the children helped.
Self die hond was bang vir die donderweer.
Even the dog was scared of the thunder.
Self hy weet dit, en hy weet niks.
Even he knows it, and he knows nothing.
Compare the two positions directly. Die kinders self (after the noun) = "the children themselves"; self die kinders (before the noun) = "even the children". The slot decides the meaning. English cannot reuse one word like this — it switches from "themselves" to "even" — which is precisely why English speakers either miss the "even" reading or wrongly try to force selfs in formal contexts. In careful written Afrikaans you will also see selfs for "even"; both self and selfs circulate in this meaning, with selfs slightly more frequent in formal prose and self common in speech.
A note on juis: not the same as self
Learners sometimes reach for self when they actually mean juis. Juis means "precisely, exactly, just" and pins down identification rather than intensifying a doer. Dit is juis hy wat dit gedoen het = "He is precisely the one who did it." It overlaps emotionally with emphasis but is a different device — use self for "in person / themselves", and juis for "exactly that one, no other". For the broader toolkit of emphasis particles, see emphasis.
Dit is juis daardie boek wat ek soek.
That's exactly the book I'm looking for.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek het dit homself gedoen.
Incorrect — the intensifier must agree with the subject ek, so it is self / ekself, not homself.
✅ Ek het dit self gedoen.
I did it myself.
❌ Die kinders self het gehelp — but meaning 'even the children'.
Incorrect for 'even' — postposed self means 'the children themselves', not 'even the children'.
✅ Self die kinders het gehelp.
Even the children helped.
❌ Hy het self in die voet geskiet.
Incorrect for the reflexive — the object that equals the subject needs the solid reflexive homself.
✅ Hy het homself in die voet geskiet.
He shot himself in the foot.
❌ Sy het dit haar self gemaak.
Incorrect spelling — when it floats after the verb it is one separate word self, not haar self.
✅ Sy het dit self gemaak.
She made it herself.
❌ Even hy weet dit nie.
Incorrect — English 'even' must become self/selfs in front of the phrase, not be left untranslated.
✅ Self hy weet dit.
Even he knows it.
Key takeaways
- Emphatic self intensifies the subject — ek het dit self gedoen, "I did it myself" — and is distinct from the reflexive object homself on reflexive pronouns.
- Write it solid when glued to the pronoun (ekself, homself) and separate when it floats after the verb (hy het self geskryf) or follows a noun (die direkteur self).
- After a noun, self is invariant and means "(the X) in person": die minister self, where English would vary himself / herself / itself.
- Before a noun phrase, self (or selfs) means "even": Self die kinders het gehelp — a meaning English expresses with a different word entirely.
- Don't confuse intensifying self with juis ("precisely") or with the reflexive object — three jobs, one short word.
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Reflexive Pronouns and -selfB1 — Afrikaans has no dedicated reflexive like Dutch zich — the ordinary object pronoun does the job (ek was my, hy skeer hom), -self adds emphasis or disambiguates, and mekaar means 'each other'.
- Emphasis and InsistenceB2 — How Afrikaans builds emphasis structurally — by fronting a constituent, by adding particles like tog and mos, by intensifier prefixes, and by repetition — rather than by stress alone.
- Subject and Object PronounsA1 — The full Afrikaans personal pronoun set — ek/my, jy/jou, hy/hom, sy/haar and the rest — with subject and object forms and where they go in a sentence.
- The Reciprocal: mekaarB1 — How to say 'each other' in Afrikaans with the invariant pronoun mekaar — its use as an object, with prepositions (met mekaar, na mekaar), for possession (mekaar se), and its idiomatic sequential meanings.