Learn Hardcore Russian: Новая грамматическая тема: возвратные глаголы на -ся, которые показывают, что человек делает действие над собой. - New grammar topic: reflexive verbs ending in -ся, which show that a person performs an action on themself.

Возвратные comes from the verb возвращать(ся) – “to return”.
So возвратный глагол is literally a “returning verb” – a verb where the action “comes back” to the subject.

In grammar terms, возвратные глаголы = “reflexive verbs” (verbs whose action is directed back to the doer, at least historically or conceptually).

In глаголы на -ся, what does на mean? How should I understand this phrase?

Here на means “with the ending” / “ending in”.

глаголы на -ся literally = “verbs on -ся”, but idiomatically it means:

“verbs ending in -ся”
This is a very common grammar phrase:
существительные на -а – nouns ending in -а
глаголы на -ить – verbs ending in -ить, etc.

Sometimes I see -сь instead of -ся. What’s the difference?

-сь and -ся are two forms of the same reflexive ending.
The rule is phonetic:

After a vowel → use -сь
- моюсь (not моюся)
- боюсь (not боюся)
After a consonant → use -ся
- моешься
- моется
- мылся

So when people say “verbs on -ся”, they mean the reflexive verbs in general, including the forms with -сь.

Is -ся a separate word like a pronoun, or is it part of the verb?

In modern Russian, -ся / -сь is written as one word with the verb and treated as a suffix (a bound morpheme), not a separate pronoun.

You conjugate the verb as usual and keep -ся / -сь at the end:

мыть → мыться
- я моюсь
- ты моешься
- он мылся

Historically it comes from a pronoun, but for you as a learner, think of it as a fixed ending attached to the verb.

Are all Russian verbs ending in -ся really “actions someone does to themselves”?

No. Many verbs with -ся are not purely “do something to yourself” in the literal sense. The same ending is also used for:

Truly reflexive actions (do something to yourself):
- мыться – to wash oneself
- одеваться – to dress oneself
Reciprocal actions (do something to each other):
- целоваться – to kiss each other
- обниматься – to hug each other
Passive-like meanings / no clear subject:
- книга читается легко – the book is easy to read / “reads easily”
Verbs of emotion or state (no direct “yourself” meaning in English):
- бояться – to be afraid
- нравиться – to be pleasing (to like)

The sentence you gave describes only the basic, intuitive reflexive idea (action directed at oneself), but in reality the category is wider.

What is the difference between using -ся and using себя (for example, мыться vs мыть себя)?

Both can show that the action is directed at the same person who is the subject, but they behave differently:

-ся:
- Built into the verb: мыться, одеваться, бриться
- Feels natural and idiomatic.
- Often you must use the reflexive form; мыть себя will sound strange or overly explicit in most everyday contexts.
себя:
- Is an independent reflexive pronoun (object in the sentence).
- Used when you need to emphasize the object, compare with others, or with prepositions:
  - Он любит только себя. – He loves only himself.
  - Думай о себе. – Think about yourself.

So: мыться is the normal everyday verb “to wash (oneself)”; мыть себя is possible but marked and rare, usually for emphasis or contrast.

What does над собой mean here, and what case is собой?

над собой literally means “over oneself / above oneself”, but in this sentence it corresponds more to English “on oneself / to oneself” in the abstract sense “directed at yourself”.

Grammatically:

над requires the instrumental case.
собой is the instrumental form of себя (reflexive pronoun).

So:

себя – base (accusative / generic) form
собой – instrumental (after с or над):
- с собой – with oneself
- над собой – over / on oneself

Why is it новая грамматическая тема and not something else? What’s going on with gender and agreement?

тема is a feminine noun in Russian (она, эта тема), so all adjectives that describe it must be in feminine singular, nominative to agree with it:

новая – feminine singular nominative of новый
грамматическая – feminine singular nominative of грамматический

Together:

новая грамматическая тема = “a new grammatical topic”

Both adjectives stand before the noun and match it in:

gender (feminine)
number (singular)
case (nominative in this sentence)

What does которые refer to in возвратные глаголы на -ся, которые показывают… and why is it plural?

которые is a relative pronoun (“which / that”). Here it refers back to глаголы:

глаголы – plural
so the relative pronoun is которые – plural form

The structure is:

возвратные глаголы на -ся, которые показывают, что…
“reflexive verbs ending in -ся, which show that…”

So которые is in the plural to agree with глаголы, and it introduces the relative clause that describes those verbs.

What tense and aspect is показывают in, and why is it used here?

показывают is:

present tense
3rd person plural
imperfective aspect
of the verb показывать (“to show”).

It’s used because the sentence describes a general rule, a habitual, timeless fact:

“reflexive verbs … show that a person does an action to themselves”

For general statements and definitions in Russian, the present tense of an imperfective verb is standard.

Could you give some common examples of возвратные глаголы на -ся that match this “doing something to yourself” idea?

Yes, some very common ones:

мыться – to wash (oneself)
- Я моюсь каждый день. – I wash (myself) every day.
одеваться – to get dressed
- Она одевается быстро. – She gets dressed quickly.
бриться – to shave (oneself)
- Он бреется каждое утро. – He shaves every morning.
расчёсываться – to brush / comb one’s hair
- Дети расчёсываются перед школой. – The children brush their hair before school.
учиться – to study / learn (for oneself)
- Я учусь в университете. – I study at university.

All of these use -ся to show that the subject is, in some sense, both doing and receiving the action.

Do English and Russian reflexive verbs match one-to-one?

No, they don’t match exactly.

English often uses a separate reflexive pronoun:
- “wash yourself”, “dress yourself”.
Russian often uses a built-in reflexive verb:
- мыться, одеваться – you usually don’t need себя.

Also:

Russian has many -ся verbs that aren’t translated with “myself / yourself” at all:
- бояться – to be afraid
- нравиться – to like / to be pleasing
- надеяться – to hope

So you need to learn many -ся verbs as separate vocabulary items and not expect a perfect one-to-one reflexive correspondence with English.