The Intensifying Pronoun Sjálfur
In this lesson, we look at the intensifying pronoun sjálfur (self/oneself). You use it to emphasize that someone is doing something personally ("I will do it myself") or to single out a specific person or thing ("I saw the manager himself"). It behaves like a strong adjective, changing its form to match the gender, number, and case of the noun or pronoun it refers to.
When the subject of the sentence is doing the action personally, sjálfur is in the nominative case.
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
|---|
| Masculine | sjálfur | sjálfir |
| Feminine | sjálf | sjálfar |
| Neuter | sjálft | sjálf |
Here it is modifying masculine and feminine subjects:
When a group of masculine or mixed-gender people do something themselves, use the plural sjálfir:
When you emphasize the direct object (or the object of a preposition that governs the accusative case), sjálfur takes the accusative.
| Gender | Accusative Singular | Accusative Plural |
|---|
| Masculine | sjálfan | sjálfa |
| Feminine | sjálfa | sjálfar |
| Neuter | sjálft | sjálf |
Notice how it changes to sjálfan to match a masculine object like fagmaðurinn (the professional):
For a neuter object like verkstæðið (the workshop), it takes the neuter accusative form sjálft:
Precision and Pride
When completing DIY projects, precision matters. The adjective nákvæmur means "accurate" or "precise":
When you successfully finish a task yourself, you can be stoltur (proud). Like sjálfur, it is an adjective that must agree with the subject in gender: