I’m not fully understanding how it is used, I understand when it is used to describe “himself” instead of him but what about in scenarios it feels like it’s not talking about a person
#how should I use the reflexive pronoun “sich”
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Reflexives makes the subject also the object.
*When you do a thing on yourself but not someone/something else.
*When multiple subjects do a thing to each other. As you can see all are subjects and all or objects in this scenario.
*When you talk in middle voice. When you use reflexive it makes the subject also the object but if the subject is a thing which can’t do the verb, it means something like passive voice. Like “The book sold well”. Book didn’t sell anything. It is sold. But you write like it sold. This is made with reflexive in German.
*And sometimes, with some verbs when dative reflexive used with verb which has direct object it means something like possession. “Ich wasche mir die Hande.” It means something like “I wash (my) hands”
*When you use accusative reflexive, subject becomes also direct object; when you use dative reflexive, subject becomes also the indirect object.
*I write to my friend.
My friend write to me.
“I and my friend” write to “me and my friend”. See, subject is also the object.
*Das Buch liest sich leicht.
Book doesn’t read. Someone read. The book can’t read. So it’s clear that it’s the one who is read. This is middle voice. Similar to passive voice.
In Bulgarian dative reflexive has another meaning too but I don’t know if it’s in German too or not.
To shape a sentence you have to use a subject. Sometimes it can be omitted to write but in background it still exists. In middle voice I think we just use reflexive to avoid to write real subjects. We just write the object in places of subject and write reflexive verb to make it clear that it’s actually the object.
Warning: in middle voice usage it must be clear that subject can’t do the verb itself. Or it would be understood as a standard sentence.
And in reciprocal usage it must be clear that subjects do the verb to each other. Or it can be understood as they do the verb to themself but not each other. Adverbs should be added if it won’t be clear to make the sentence clear.
late flax
Also, a general note: Which verbs use a reflexive pronoun with them are sometimes the same in both English and German (I wash myself/Ich wasche mich), sometimes only German requires the reflexive pronoun (I remember the dog/Ich erinnere mich an den Hund), and sometimes only the English requires the reflexive pronoun (I can't think of an example for this.)
So just note that a verb in German may require a reflexive pronoun, when the English verb doesn't, and that may seem weird, but that's simply one of those things you have to memorize when learning certain verbs.