ինքը

Armenian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old Armenian ինքն (inkʻn).

Pronunciation

Pronoun

ինքը • (inkʻə)

  1. he himself, she herself, it itself

Usage notes

  • This pronoun can be combined with any personal pronoun to emphasize its antecedent, in which case it takes a personal suffix ( (-s)/ (-d)/ ()) corresponding to the person, e.g., ես ինքս (es inkʻs) (“I myself”), դու ինքդ (du inkʻd) (“you yourself”), նա ինքը (na inkʻə) (“he himself/she herself”), դուք ինքներդ (dukʻ inkʻnerd) (“you yourselves”), մենք ինքներս (menkʻ inkʻners) (“we ourselves”) and so on.
  • This pronoun also functions as a reflexive pronoun for the third person singular and plural: e.g., նրանք/իրենք իրենց լավ են պահում (nrankʻ/irenkʻ irencʻ lav en pahum) (“they are behaving themselves well”), նա/ինքն իրեն լավ չի զգում (na/inkʻn iren lav čʻi zgum) (“he/she does not feel well”).
  • In spoken Western and Eastern Armenian, ինքը is commonly used in place of the ordinary third person personal pronoun նա (na), e.g., ինքը տուն է գնում (inkʻə tun ē gnum) instead of նա տուն է գնում (na tun ē gnum), both meaning “He/she is going home”.

Declension

Eastern Armenian
singular
nominative ինքը (inkʻə)
genitive իր, իրա*, յուր** (ir, ira*, yur**)
dative իրեն, իրան* (iren, iran*)
accusative իրեն, իրան* (iren, iran*)
ablative իրենից, իրանից* (irenicʻ, iranicʻ*)
instrumental իրենով, իրանով* (irenov, iranov*)
locative իրենում, իրանում* (irenum, iranum*)

Derived terms

References

  • Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009) Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian (London Oriental and African Language Library; 14), Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pages 126-128