Девочка не любит смотреть на себя в зеркало.
The girl does not like to look at herself in the mirror.
Breakdown of Девочка не любит смотреть на себя в зеркало.
не
not
девочка
girl
любить
to love, to like
в
in / to (direction)
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
смотреть
to watch / to look at / make sure (in a warning)
себя
oneself (себе: Dat/Prep)
зеркало
mirror
Questions & Answers about Девочка не любит смотреть на себя в зеркало.
What case is себя in here, and why?
It is in the accusative case. The verb смотреть (to look) paired with the preposition на (at) requires the accusative case for the object being looked at. Because the action reflects back to the subject (the girl), it translates to herself in English.
Why do we use the preposition на before себя?
In Russian, the standard phrase for looking at something is смотреть на. You cannot just put себя directly after the verb; it needs the preposition на to show what the gaze is directed at.
Could I use её instead of себя in this sentence?
If you said на её, it would mean the girl does not like looking at a completely different female person. To show that the subject (the girl) is looking at her own reflection, you must use the reflexive pronoun себя.
Why is it в зеркало (accusative) instead of в зеркале (prepositional)?
When you look into a mirror, Russian treats your gaze as a movement directed toward a target, so it uses the accusative case (в зеркало). If you used the prepositional case (в зеркале), it would literally imply the girl is physically located inside the mirror while not liking to look at herself!
Learn Девочка не любит смотреть на себя в зеркало and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free