Russian / Verb Morphology
A worn-down "self" that hooks onto the end of a verb, after every other ending, and quietly changes what the verb does. Tap any speaker to hear it.
It is a postfix: it lands after the personal ending, not before it. You conjugate the verb completely as normal, then tack ся on the very end.
to study, to be a student
| я | учу́сь | |
| ты | у́чишься | |
| он / она́ | у́чится | |
| мы | у́чимся | |
| вы | у́читесь | |
| они́ | у́чатся |
Adding the particle does not just mean "teach yourself." It swaps a verb that takes an object for one that cannot.
One soft sign separates the infinitive from the conjugated form, and Russian gives you a built-in test.
The action loops back onto the subject. The literal "self" meaning.
Some verbs never appear without it. Nothing to "undo," just learn them whole.
The workhorse. Turns "do X to something" into "be in the state of X." This is учи́ться.
Something has the action done to it. Common in writing.
Two or more subjects act on one another.
True postfixes (particles glued after the ending) are rare. This is essentially the whole set, so nothing else of this kind will ambush you.
| ся / сь | reflexive, the one on this page |
| то | specific but unknownкто-то = someone |
| нибу́дь | any one will doчто-нибу́дь = something |
| ли́бо | anyone at all (bookish)кто-ли́бо = anyone |
| ка | softens a commandдай-ка = go on, give it here |
You do not need any of this to start speaking. Я учу́сь already says "I'm studying," and you can say true things today with present tense and a handful of verbs. Grammar is cleanup after you have already been wrong out loud. Meet ся in the wild, then come back to this page.