La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo.

The child looks at themself in the mirror.

Breakdown of La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo.

• la: the
• en: in
• infano: the child
• spegulo: the mirror
• rigardi: to look at
• sin: herself

Questions & Answers about La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo.

What does sin mean here, and why isn’t it lin or ŝin?

Sin is the reflexive object pronoun for the third person. It means himself / herself / itself / themselves, but it always refers back to the subject of the same clause.

So in La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo, sin refers back to la infano. We don’t say lin (him), ŝin (her), or ilin (them), because those would refer to some other person, not the subject.

• La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo.
  The child looks at himself/herself in the mirror.

• La infano rigardas lin en la spegulo.
  The child looks at him in the mirror (some other male person).

Why is it sin and not si?

Si is the basic form of the reflexive pronoun, and it takes -n when it is a direct object in the accusative case. So:

• si → subject or non-object form (rare on its own)
• sin → object form (accusative)

In this sentence, sin is the direct object of rigardas (the child is looking at someone, i.e. at themselves), so it must be sin, not si.

Can I use sin with mi and ni, like Mi rigardas sin en la spegulo?

No. Si/sin is only used for third person subjects (he, she, it, they, a named person, etc.).

For first and second person, you use the regular object pronouns:

• Mi rigardas min en la spegulo.
  I look at myself in the mirror.

• Ni rigardas nin en la spegulo.
  We look at ourselves in the mirror.

Using Mi rigardas sin is incorrect in Esperanto.

Why is there no at in Esperanto, like rigardas al sin?

In Esperanto, rigardi already includes the “look at” idea. It is inherently a transitive verb: you rigardi iun / ion = to look at someone / something.

So:

• rigardi iun = to look at someone
• rigardi ion = to look at something

You do not add al:

• ✅ La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo.
• ❌ La infano rigardas al sin en la spegulo.

The preposition al would be used with verbs like iri al (go to), paroli al (speak to), etc., but not with rigardi.

Why is it rigardas and not vidas?

Rigardi and vidi are different verbs:

• rigardi = to look at, to watch (active, intentional)
• vidi = to see (perceive with the eyes, not necessarily intentional)

In English:

• The child looks at himself in the mirror → La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo.
• The child sees himself in the mirror → La infano vidas sin en la spegulo.

Both are grammatically correct, but they mean slightly different things, just like in English.

Why is it en la spegulo and not en la spegulon?

The -n ending (accusative) is used mainly for:

1. Direct objects of verbs.
2. Indicating motion towards somewhere (with certain prepositions).

Here, spegulo is not a direct object. It is inside a prepositional phrase:

• en la spegulo = in the mirror (location, not movement toward)

Because en here expresses a place where something happens (location, not direction), spegulo stays in its basic form, without -n.

You would only add -n if there is movement into the mirror (as a direction):

• La infano saltas en la spegulon.
  The child jumps into the mirror.

In your sentence, we just have location: in the mirror, so en la spegulo.

Why do we say la spegulo with la? Could we say just en spegulo?

La is the definite article: it means the.

• la spegulo = the mirror (a specific mirror)
• spegulo (without la) = a mirror, any mirror, mirror (in general)

So:

• La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo.
  The child looks at himself in the mirror (a particular mirror).

You could say:

• La infano rigardas sin en spegulo.
  The child looks at himself in a mirror (not specific).

Both are grammatically correct; the difference is definiteness, just like the mirror vs a mirror in English.

Why is la repeated: la infano and la spegulo? In English we just say the child looks at himself in the mirror.

In Esperanto, la generally appears before each noun you want to make definite. You don’t normally “reuse” a single la for multiple nouns.

So:

• La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo.
  the child … the mirror

If you have two nouns, you normally repeat la:

• La patro kaj la patrino venas.
  The father and the mother are coming.

Using la only once to cover more than one separate noun is not how Esperanto usually works.

How flexible is the word order? Could I say La infano sin rigardas en la spegulo or Sin rigardas la infano en la spegulo?

Esperanto word order is more flexible than English, because the -n ending marks the object. However, there is still a neutral, most natural order:

• Neutral: La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo.
  (Subject – Verb – Object – extra info)

Other orders are possible, mainly for emphasis:

• La infano sin rigardas en la spegulo.
  Puts a bit more emphasis on sin (himself).

• Sin rigardas la infano en la spegulo.
  Strong emphasis on sin; stylistically marked, more poetic or contrastive.

All of these are grammatically correct, but the original order is the most ordinary, conversational one.

Does rigardas mean is looking or looks?

The Esperanto present tense ending -as covers both simple present and present progressive in English. Context decides.

So La infano rigardas sin en la spegulo can mean:

• The child looks at himself in the mirror.
  or
• The child is looking at himself in the mirror.

If you really need to emphasize that something is happening right now, you can add a time word like nun (now), but grammatically rigardas itself already works for both English forms.

Does infano say anything about gender?

No. Infano just means child, without specifying gender.

If you want to be explicit:

• knabo = boy
• knabino = girl

So:

• La knabo rigardas sin en la spegulo.
  The boy looks at himself in the mirror.

• La knabino rigardas sin en la spegulo.
  The girl looks at herself in the mirror.

In the original sentence, la infano can be understood as the child (he or she), and sin is neutral with respect to gender.

Can sin also be used for plural subjects, like children look at themselves?

Yes. Si/sin does not change for number or gender. It always just means himself / herself / itself / themselves, referring back to the subject.

For example:

• La infanoj rigardas sin en la spegulo.
  The children look at themselves in the mirror.

Here, sin refers back to la infanoj (the children) as a group, just as English uses themselves.