Ils font toutes les réparations eux-mêmes.

Questions & Answers about Ils font toutes les réparations eux-mêmes.

Why do we use eux-mêmes instead of ils-mêmes?
To say "themselves" or "myself", French attaches -même or -mêmes to stressed pronouns (also called disjunctive pronouns), not subject pronouns. The stressed pronoun for the subject ils is eux, which is why we use eux-mêmes.
Why does mêmes have an s at the end here?
When même is used as a suffix to mean "-self" or "-selves", it must agree in number with the pronoun it attaches to. Because eux is plural, même takes an s to become mêmes. If it were a singular pronoun like lui (him), it would be lui-même without the s.
Does eux-mêmes mean they did the repairs "alone" or just that they did them "personally"?
It emphasizes that they did the repairs personally, rather than hiring someone else to do it. If you specifically wanted to emphasize that they did it "all alone" without any help, you would typically use the adjective seuls or tout seuls instead.
Why is it toutes les réparations rather than tous les réparations?
The word for "all" (tout) acts as an adjective here and must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies. Because the noun réparation is feminine and it is plural in this sentence, tout changes to its feminine plural form, toutes.

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