A reflexive pronoun is what you use when the object of the verb is the same person as the subject — when someone does something to themselves. English signals this by sticking -self onto the object pronoun: myself, yourself, himself. Swedish does something subtler: in the 1st and 2nd persons it simply reuses the ordinary object pronoun, but in the 3rd person it switches to a special word — sig — for himself, herself, itself, themselves, oneself. Getting this wrong does not just sound off; it changes who did what to whom.
The reflexive paradigm
Here is the full set. Notice the pattern: every person looks identical to its plain object pronoun (see Object Pronouns) except the 3rd person, where a brand-new form sig appears for both singular and plural.
| Subject | Reflexive object | English |
|---|---|---|
| jag | mig | myself |
| du | dig | yourself |
| han / hon / den / det / man | sig | himself / herself / itself / oneself |
| vi | oss | ourselves |
| ni | er | yourselves |
| de | sig | themselves |
Jag tvättar mig och du tvättar dig — sedan tvättar barnen sig själva.
I wash myself and you wash yourself — then the children wash themselves. mig / dig are just object forms; only the 3rd person (barnen → sig) uses the special word.
Vi måste skynda oss, annars missar ni er buss.
We have to hurry (ourselves), otherwise you'll miss your bus. 1st plural = oss, 2nd plural = er — both ordinary object forms.
The takeaway: the "special" reflexive is a narrow 3rd-person affair. For I, you, we, you-all there is nothing new to learn — the reflexive is the object pronoun you already know. Only when the subject is he/she/it/they/one does Swedish demand sig.
sig vs. honom/henne: same word, opposite meaning
This is the heart of the page. In the 3rd person, Swedish keeps two pronouns strictly apart:
- sig = the subject acting on itself (reflexive)
- honom / henne / den / det / dem = the subject acting on someone or something else
English blurs this with -self, which is just an add-on to the same object word. Swedish does not — and the difference is meaning-bearing. Compare this minimal pair, which is the example to burn into memory:
Hon ser sig i spegeln.
She sees herself in the mirror. 'sig' = the same woman; she's looking at her own reflection.
Hon ser henne i spegeln.
She sees her (another woman) in the mirror. 'henne' = a different person, visible in the mirror.
One word changes, and the second woman appears or disappears. The same split runs through every 3rd-person verb:
Han rakar sig varje morgon.
He shaves (himself) every morning. 'sig' = his own face.
Frisören rakar honom.
The barber shaves him. 'honom' = a different man (the customer).
De försvarade sig i rätten.
They defended themselves in court. 'sig' = the defendants protecting their own case.
Reflexive verbs
Many Swedish verbs are simply always reflexive — they come bundled with a reflexive pronoun even when English uses no "-self" at all. With these, sig (or mig/dig/oss/er in the lower persons) is just part of the verb's normal shape, not an optional emphasis.
Sätt dig! Vi börjar strax.
Sit down! We're starting soon. 'sätta sig' (literally 'seat oneself') is the everyday verb for 'to sit down' — note 'dig' because the subject is 'du'.
Hon känner sig bättre idag.
She feels better today. 'känna sig' = 'to feel (some way)' — always reflexive, even though English has no '-self'.
Skynda dig, bussen går!
Hurry up, the bus is leaving! 'skynda sig' is inherently reflexive; you can't 'skynda' without the pronoun.
Barnen lärde sig att simma den sommaren.
The children learned to swim that summer. 'lära sig' = 'to learn' carries an obligatory reflexive.
A fuller list and the logic of why these verbs are built this way live on Reflexive Verbs. For now, just register that sig often is not "himself/herself" in any translatable sense — it is welded to the verb.
A note on spelling and pronunciation
In careful writing it is always sig, with the -g. In everyday speech, though, it is pronounced — and in casual writing sometimes spelled — sej, exactly as mig and dig are said mej and dej. Do not let the spoken sej tempt you into a different written form: standard Swedish keeps mig, dig, sig.
Be careful, too, not to confuse the reflexive object sig with the reflexive possessive sin ("his/her/their own"). They share the same 3rd-person logic but do different jobs: sig is an object ("he washes himself"), sin modifies a noun ("he washed his own car"). That possessive has its own page, The Reflexive Possessive sin/sitt/sina.
Common Mistakes
❌ Han rakar honom. (meaning 'he shaves himself')
Incorrect — 'honom' means a DIFFERENT man. For 'himself' you need the reflexive 'sig'. English '-self' tempts learners to keep the object form.
✅ Han rakar sig.
He shaves (himself).
❌ Hon ser henne i spegeln. (meaning 'she sees herself')
Incorrect — 'henne' is another woman. To say she sees her own reflection, use 'sig'.
✅ Hon ser sig i spegeln.
She sees herself in the mirror.
❌ Jag tvättar sig.
Incorrect — 'sig' is only for the 3rd person. With 'jag' the reflexive is the object form 'mig'.
✅ Jag tvättar mig.
I wash myself.
❌ Vi skyndar sig.
Incorrect — 'vi' takes 'oss', not 'sig'. 'sig' never appears in the 1st or 2nd person.
✅ Vi skyndar oss.
We hurry (up).
❌ De försvarade dem i rätten. (meaning 'they defended themselves')
Incorrect — 'dem' would be other people. For 'themselves', use 'sig'.
✅ De försvarade sig i rätten.
They defended themselves in court.
Key Takeaways
- The reflexive pronoun is the ordinary object pronoun in every person except the third (jag → mig, du → dig, vi → oss, ni → er), where Swedish uses the special sig for both singular and plural.
- sig means the subject acts on itself; honom / henne / den / det / dem mean it acts on someone else. Swapping them flips the meaning — Hon ser sig (herself) vs. Hon ser henne (another woman).
- Unlike English, which just adds -self to the object pronoun, Swedish has a dedicated 3rd-person form, so the reflexive is a narrow 3rd-person phenomenon — the same zone where the possessive sin lives.
- Many verbs are inherently reflexive (sätta sig, känna sig, skynda sig, lära sig); there the pronoun is part of the verb, not optional emphasis.
- Write sig even though it is spoken sej.
Related Topics
- Object PronounsA1 — The Swedish object personal pronouns — mig, dig, honom, henne, hen, den, det, en, oss, er, dem — used after verbs and after prepositions. Includes the spoken forms (mig/dig/sig = mej/dej/sej, dem = 'dom') and why the spoken collapse of de and dem makes the written distinction hard even for natives.
- The Reflexive Possessive sin/sitt/sinaB1 — sin/sitt/sina means 'his/her/its/their own' and points back to the subject of the same clause: Han älskar sin fru = his OWN wife, while Han älskar hans fru = some other man's wife. It agrees with the thing owned (like min/mitt/mina), is strictly 3rd-person and subject-bound — and, the detail competitors skip, can NEVER itself be part of the subject.
- sin/sitt/sina vs hans/hennes/derasB1 — The decision procedure for Swedish's reflexive possessive. Use sin/sitt/sina ('one's own') when the owner is the third-person SUBJECT of the SAME clause; use hans/hennes/deras for everyone and everything else. 'Han tvättar sin bil' means he washes his OWN car; 'Han tvättar hans bil' means he washes some other man's car — a distinction English can't make in a single word. The hard part is embedded clauses, where 'sin' points to the nearest subject.
- Reflexive Verbs (känna sig, sätta sig)B1 — Some Swedish verbs require a reflexive object that points back at the subject: känna sig 'feel', sätta sig 'sit down', lägga sig 'lie down', skynda sig 'hurry', gifta sig 'get married', lära sig 'learn'. The reflexive (mig/dig/sig...) agrees with the subject and is grammatically obligatory even where English has no '-self' at all.