itse

The pronoun itse is highly versatile but follows specific rules depending on its position.

1. Emphatic Function (Intensifier)
When emphasizing a specific person or thing, use itse. In the nominative case, it is always bare, whether it stands alone (Minä itse tein sen - I myself did it) or follows a noun (Pääministeri itse kannattaa jäsenyyttä - The prime minister himself supports the membership). When following a noun in other (oblique) cases, it takes a possessive suffix: Puhuin presidentille itselleen (I spoke to the president himself). When itse precedes a noun to mean 'the actual' or 'the very', it usually remains uninflected in its base form: itse presidentti (the president himself), itse teossa (in the very act). If it does inflect to match the case of the following noun, it MUST also take a possessive suffix (e.g., itseltään Pelle Miljoonalta).

2. Reflexive Function (Self)
When itse acts as the reflexive pronoun (meaning 'self'), it must always take a possessive suffix that agrees with the person of the subject (e.g., minä -> -ni, sinä -> -si). Because reflexive pronouns cannot act as the subject of a sentence, they typically appear in object or adverbial cases: Pesen itseni (I wash myself). It can appear in the nominative as a predicative: Ole oma itsesi (Be your own self). Note that Finnish heavily prefers reflexive verbs (e.g., peseytyä) for routine actions. Using itse with a transitive verb (e.g., pesen itseni) adds strong emphasis.

3. Object Cases and Stems
To form the object cases of itse, specific stems are used before adding the possessive suffix. For the Accusative/Genitive (total object), the case-marking -n is dropped when the possessive suffix is added, resulting in a form that looks identical to the nominative base + suffix (itse + ni = itseni). For the Partitive (partial object), add -ä- (itse + ä + si = itseäsi). Note the difference in the 3rd person: itsensä is the total object form, while itseään (or the equally valid itseänsä) is the partial object form.

4. Singular Stem for Plural Meanings
Unlike most nouns, itse does not use a plural stem marker (-i-). To refer to 'ourselves' or 'themselves', use the singular stem with a plural possessive suffix: Autamme itseämme (We help ourselves). Because there is no plural stem, the 3rd person forms (itsensä and itseään/itseänsä) mean both 'himself/herself' and 'themselves'.

5. Common Case Examples

• Allative (Reflexive): Ostin sen itselleni (I bought it for myself).
• Adessive (Emphatic): Hänellä itsellään on auto (He himself has a car).
• Partitive (Reflexive): Rakasta itseäsi (Love yourself).
• Translative (Alone/By oneself): Hän hymyili itsekseen (He smiled to himself) or Teen sen itsekseni (I'll do it by myself).

6. Preceding Emphatic Phrases
Many common phrases use the uninflected preceding emphatic form of itse, such as itse asiassa (in fact/actually, literally 'in the actual matter').

Local Cases
Add the case ending before the possessive suffix: itse-stä-ni (from/about myself), itse-lle-si (to yourself), and itsee-si (into yourself, with the illative n removed before -si). Third-person alternatives include itsestään / itsestänsä and itselleen / itsellensä. The shorter -Vn variant is possible after the short vowel at the end of -stä or -lle; the illative already has a long vowel, so use itseensä, not an extra-lengthened vowel.