When discovering people's hidden talents and unexpected skills, you will often want to emphasize certain details. The word mesmo is incredibly versatile for this. Depending on where you place it in a sentence, its meaning shifts entirely between "really", "even", and "oneself".
Mesmo as "Really" or "Truly"
When you place mesmo directly after a verb, or right before an adjective or another adverb, it acts as an intensifier meaning "really" or "truly". In this role, it is an adverb and never changes form.
Mesmo as "Even"
When placed immediately before a noun, a pronoun, or a prepositional phrase, mesmo means "even". It highlights something surprising or unexpected. It is still an adverb here, so it remains invariable (it does not change for gender or number).
Mesmo as "Oneself"
When you place mesmo directly after a noun or subject pronoun, it emphasizes the person or thing itself (translating to "himself", "herself", "ourselves", or "themselves").
Because it acts as an adjective in this position, it must agree in gender and number with the noun or pronoun it modifies (mesmo, mesma, mesmos, mesmas).
