82707
I know it's a huge topic, but I can't understand the differences between all
this ways to say oneself, and by extension yourself, himself, herself ...

If anyone can help me to have a picture of the uses for oneself, it will be
very helpful (and i'm pretty confident that I'm not alone in this situation
:D)

Thank you :)
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question
grammar word-choice usage pronouns
Oneself words difference : 自分, 自身, 自ら, 自分自身, 己, 自己, 自力
This might not be the most complete answer, but I might be able to give a
general picture for what they are used for. I'll give a summary of what I have
read, mostly which comes from
[goo.ne](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/thsrs/5450/meaning/m0u/#:%7E:text=%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86%EF%BC%8F%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86%E8%87%AA%E8%BA%AB%EF%BC%8F%E8%87%AA%E5%B7%B1%EF%BC%8F%E5%B7%B1%20%E3%81%AE%E4%BD%BF%E3%81%84%E5%88%86%E3%81%91&text=%E3%80%8C%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86%E8%87%AA%E8%BA%AB%E3%80%8D%E3%81%AF%E3%80%81%E3%80%8C,%E3%82%92%E5%BC%B7%E8%AA%BF%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%81%86%E8%AA%9E%E3%80%82&text=%E3%80%8C%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86%E3%80%8D%E3%81%AF%E3%80%81%E3%80%8C%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86,%E7%9A%84%E3%81%AA%E3%82%82%E3%81%AE%E3%81%AB%E3%81%84%E3%81%86%E3%80%82).

**自分** - This refers to the "self" in both the concrete and the abstract. For
example 「自分の体」refers to your physical body. 「自分の考え」is also perfectly valid.

> 自分のことは、自分で決めろ。  
>  Decide for yourself.

**自分自身** - This creates emphasis by putting two words with similar meanings
together. It emphasizes that "yourself" as an individual.

> 自分自身を大切にしなければならない  
>  You must cherish yourself.

**自己** - This "self" mostly refers to the abstract. The example given was
「自己の信念を貫く」, "To stick to your own beliefs". It also appears in a lot of
compounds like 自己紹介 and 自己犠牲.

**己** - This sounds very archaic. You'll find this in old proverbs as well as
cheesy dramas about old Japan. It has almost the same meaning as 自分.

> 全ては、己の弱さを認めた時に始まる  
>  Everything starts from realizing your own weaknesses. (From JOJO)

**自身** - Although this has a lot of overlap with 自分, the difference is that 自身
can also be used to refer to inanimate objects. It can mean the equivalent to
そのもの. 自分 can only refer to "self" as something with volition. 自身 can also be
used to emphasis the noun before it. For example:

> 彼女自身の生き方。  
>  A lifestyle of her own.

**自ら** - This has the same meaning as 自分, but it can also refer to groups of
people. In my (possibly wrong) opinion, it also sounds a bit stiff and formal.

> 彼は自らの力で勝った。  
>  He won with his own power.
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answer
Although the words you listed are all semantically related, they each have
quite distinct grammatical roles in the typical usage (with little
overlapping) that you never want to miss.

### As function words: 自分/己 vs 自身/自ら vs 自己 (vs 自)

**自分** is a **standalone** pronoun that substitutes the same referent (noun)
that appears in the context. While it certainly can be categorized as
"reflexive pronoun", its chief use cases are sentences which have multiple
actions that involve the same participant. Don't expect too much for it to
really translate _oneself_ or such in English, and vice versa. Most of the
times they have better lexical expressions; try to look up those parallel
corpora.

> 彼は自分を笑った者たちを許さない。  
>  _He does not forgive those who laughed at him (*himself)._
>
> _He washed himself._  
>  彼は体（× 自分）を洗った。

It also represents various meanings usually translated with adverbs in
English:

> 自分で _by oneself; personally; alone_  
>  自分から _on its own will; spontaneously_

Sometimes, 自分 appears without an apparent antecedent. In this case, it means
general "you". Japanese usually omits such a pronoun, but it is required, like
above, when it has references to the same agent. (Natural translation may
become "me/myself" or "him(self)" and such according to the context.)

> 視点を持て _Have a perspective._  
>  **自分の** 視点を持て _Have **your own** perspective._

As I said "standalone", 自分 does not form compounds with other nouns. It is
only accompanied by particles or affixes (affixable words).

> 自分たち _oneselves_ (plural)  
>  自分らしさ _one's own style; being oneself_  
>  自分どうし ([see what it
> means](https://twitter.com/doraemonChannel/status/216095355685703680/photo/1))

**己【おのれ】** is simply an archaic and/or solemn variant of 自分.

Meanwhile, **自身** is a **suffix** , always attached to another noun to add
meanings like _the very —_ ; _— oneself_ ; _— per se_ etc. The word must be
put right after the noun, though the resulted translation may not need to be.
Sometimes it is just for extra emphasis; other times not:

> ボス自身は弱いが、シールドを壊さないと攻撃が通らない。  
>  _The boss is fragile in itself, but you can't damage it before shutting
> down the shield._

If you combine 自分 with 自身, you get **自分自身**.

Note that both 自分 and 自身 are mainly for animate nouns. In most cases you
should use **自体** instead of 自身 for the "per se" sense. There is no exact
replacement of 自分 for inanimate nouns, so we usually use それ or repeating the
noun in such context.

> 紙幣はそれ自体に価値がない。  
>  _Banknotes do not have value on their own._

**自【みずか】ら** is a synonym of the suffix 自身 with a couple of reservations: (1)
there is no 自分 + 自ら; (2) usable with animate and inanimate alike.

**自己** is almost always used as **prefix** to make compounds that means
_self-_ or _auto-_. It has a large number of derivatives:

> 自己紹介 _self-introduction_  
>  自己修復材料 _self-healing materials_  
>  自己免疫 _autoimmunity_  
>  自己愛 _narcissism_

Lastly, there is another **prefix** **自-** , which is either (a) same with 自己
exclusively for building two- or four-kanji idioms; (b) of one's; or (c) your
own group, "friend" as opposed to "foe", or "we" to "they".

> 自業自得 _You reap what you sow._  
>  自動詞 _intransitive verb_  
>  自チーム _one's team_  
>  自陣 _own base_ , _own half_ , _home territory_  
>  自文化中心主義 _ethnocentrism_

### As nouns

**自分** is, besides the above, used for true noun for _(one's) self_. It is the
simplest word that kids would use for this sense. Has some compounds:

> 自分勝手 _selfish, self-righteous_  
>  自分探し _finding yourself_

**自身** can also be used apparently alone in bookish styles, which technically
should be taken as omission of the previous noun. Not as truly independent to
form compounds. However, compared to 自分, it focuses more on external
properties, such as: one's past, one's life, one's deed, one's belonging etc
(=自分の身, 我が身). Also applies to **自ら**.

> ボルトは自身／自らの（=彼自身の=自分の持つ）世界記録を更新した。  
>  Bolt broke his own world record.

**自己** is rarely used as noun except for _self_ as a psychological term.
Otherwise you can safely forget about it in modern writing.

**自力** is literally "one's own capacity". Almost only used in the collocation
自力で "by oneself (without others' help)" = 自分（の力）で.

> 自力救済 _self-help_ ([legal term](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-
> help_\(law\)))  
>  自力更生 _self-reliance_ (Chinese slogan, lit. "revitalize on our own")

### As personal pronouns

**自分** is sometimes [a first-person pronoun
_I_](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/979/7810), but also dialectal
informal _you_ in Kansai.

**己** is also informal _you_ in some (mostly Western) dialects.

### As adverb

**自ら** can be used alone as an adverb: _with one's own hands/initiative; at
first hand_.

### Comparison

Some situations can be expressed with multiple options.

> _The CEO supervise the project in person._  
>  = 社長が **自分で** 計画の音頭を取る。 (pronoun + case)  
>  = 社長 **自身** が計画の音頭を取る。 (suffix)  
>  = 社長が **自身で** 計画の音頭を取る。 ((pseudo-)noun + case)  
>  = 社長 **自ら** が計画の音頭を取る。 (suffix)  
>  = 社長が **自ら** 計画の音頭を取る。 (adverb)
>
> × 社長 **自分** が計画の音頭を取る。 (not affix)  
>  × 社長が **自分** 計画の音頭を取る。 (not bare or as affix)  
>  × 社長が **自身** 計画の音頭を取る。 (not bare or as affix)

* * *

**Bonus:**

  * 自我: _ego_ (of psychology); note that non-scientific uses are like "alter ego": 別人格, "egoist": 自己中心的 etc.
  * 本人: _the person him/herself_ , _the principal person_ , _the real McCoy_
  * 我【われ】: contrary to common assumption, this word is more like "oneself" than "I": 我に返る "come to oneself", 我を忘れる "lose oneself"; in genitive: 我【わ】が家 "one's own home", 我が道 "one's own way"
  * 自【おのずか】ら: (of inanimate) spontaneously; as a natural consequence
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answer