Breakdown of Пожалуйста, берегите себя!
пожалуйста
please
себя
oneself (себе: Dat/Prep)
беречь
to protect, to take care of
Questions & Answers about Пожалуйста, берегите себя!
Why use себя here instead of вас for "yourselves"?
In Russian, whenever the object of the sentence is the same as the subject, you must use the reflexive pronoun себя. Since this is a command, the hidden subject is "you" (вы). If you said берегите вас, it would sound like you are telling the listeners to take care of a completely different group of people!
What case is себя in here?
It is in the Accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb. In English, we say "take care of" (which might make you think of the Genitive or Prepositional cases), but the Russian verb беречь translates more closely to "protect" or "guard". You are directly protecting yourself, so it takes the Accusative.
If I am talking to a close friend (using ты), do I need to change себя?
No, себя stays exactly the same! The word себя has no singular or plural forms, and no gender. It simply reflects back to whatever the subject is. However, you would need to change the verb to the informal singular command: береги себя.
What is the dictionary form (infinitive) of берегите?
The infinitive is беречь (to protect, to keep safe). Verbs ending in -чь often have consonant changes when they are conjugated, which is why the letter г appears in the command form берегите.
Learn Пожалуйста, берегите себя 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