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się. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
się, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
się in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
się you have here. The definition of the word
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się, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Old Polish
Alternative forms
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *sę, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *sen, from Proto-Indo-European *swé. First attested in the 14th century.
Pronunciation
Pronoun
się
- reflexive pronoun; oneself, self
- (in the, dative) used for emphasis; now
- each other, one another
- one's own home
Declension
Descendants
References
Polish
Etymology
Inherited from Old Polish się.
Pronunciation
Pronoun
się (genitive and accusative cases)
- reflexive pronoun; oneself, self
- each other, one another
- one's own home
- Wracam do siebie ― I'm going back to my place.
Declension
Declension of -
|
|
singular and plural
|
| nominative
|
—
|
| genitive
|
się/siebie
|
| dative
|
sobie
|
| accusative
|
się/siebie
|
| instrumental
|
sobą
|
| locative
|
sobie
|
| vocative
|
—
|
Alternative forms
Particle
się
- used to form impersonal present or future tense
- Robi się późno. ― It's getting late.
- Mówi się, że... ― It is said that...
Trivia
According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), się is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 1569 times in scientific texts, 1321 times in news, 1287 times in essays, 2614 times in fiction, and 2511 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 9302 times, making it the 4th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.
References
- ^ Ida Kurcz (1990) “się”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 2, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 527
Further reading
- się in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
- się in Polish dictionaries at PWN
- Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “się”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
- Aleksandra Wieczorek (21.11.2018) “SIĘ”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]
- Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “się”, in Słownik języka polskiego
- Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “się”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
- J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1915), “się”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 6, Warsaw, page 110