Meaning

  1. (accusative, dative, form-of, pronoun, reflexive) Reflexive pronoun of the third person singular or plural: herself, himself, itself, oneself, themselves (in both dative and accusative)
  2. (accusative, dative) Reciprocal pronoun of the third person plural: each other (in both dative and accusative)

Frequency

A1
Dialects

Zürich

Zürich

sich

Lucerne

Lucerne

sech

Basel-Landschaft

Basel-Landschaft

sich

Graubünden

Graubünden

sich

Appenzell Ausserrhoden

Appenzell Ausserrhoden

sich

Appenzell Innerrhoden

Appenzell Innerrhoden

sich

Fribourg

Fribourg

sìch

Zürich

Zürich

sichs

Basel-Landschaft

Basel-Landschaft

si

Fribourg

Fribourg

sich

St. Gallen

St. Gallen

Aargau

Aargau

sich

Data provided by: Deutsch-Schweizerdeutsches Wörterbuch

Pronounced as (IPA)
/zɪç/
Etymology

In summary

From Middle High German sich, from Old High German sih, from Proto-Germanic *sek. Compare Yiddish זיך (zikh), Dutch zich. Unrelated to sicher. This pronoun was originally restricted to the accusative case, while simple personal pronouns were used in the dative. Dative use of sich in Middle High German was restricted to northern dialects of Central German. In Early Modern German, a rare dative sir also occurred, formed by analogy with mir, dir. An obstacle to the generalisation of this form was the use of sich in the plural, where there operated the conflicting analogy with the merged accusative/dative forms uns, euch.

Notes

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