ourselves

English

Etymology

Morphologically our +‎ -selves.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /aʊəˈsɛlvz/, /ɑːˈsɛlvz/
(General American) IPA^(key): /aʊɚˈsɛlvz/, /ɑɹˈsɛlvz/
Audio (US): (file)
Rhymes: -ɛlvz

Pronoun

ourselves (first personal plural pronoun, reflexive case of we)

(reflexive) Us; the group including the speaker as the object of a verb or preposition when that group also is the subject.
We should keep this for ourselves.

Let's not beat ourselves up over this.
(emphatic) Intensifies the subject as the group including the speaker, especially to indicate that no one else satisfies the predicate or needs to be included.
We did it ourselves.
(colloquial) Referring to everyone being addressed.
Come on everyone! Let's get ourselves up and out of bed, please. (reflexive)

Now then children, I'm not going to help you with the next problem. We should be able to work this one out ourselves. (emphatic)
(colloquial, may seem patronising) Referring to an individual person being addressed, especially a person in the speaker's care; also ourself.
Coordinate term: nurse's we

Hello Mrs Miggins. Did we manage to wash ourselves this morning? (reflexive)

Well done Timmy! Did we make that model ourselves? (emphatic)

Synonyms

usself (obsolete or dialectal)
weself (Jamaican)

Coordinate terms

ourself (for the singular "we")

Derived terms

between ourselves

Translations

reflexive: us

Arabic: أَنْفُسَنَا (ʔanfusanā)
Belarusian: сябе́ (sjabjé) (accusative, genitive), сабе́ (sabjé) (dative, locative), сабо́й (sabój) (instrumental); -цца (-cca) (verb ending)
Catalan: ens (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 我們自己 / 我们自己, 我们自己 (wǒmén zìjǐ)
Esperanto: ni (eo), nin (eo)
Finnish: itsemme (fi)
Hungarian: magunk (hu), magunkat (accusative)
Ido: ni ipsa
Irish: sinn féin
Italian: ci (it), la nostra f, il nostro m, le nostre f pl, noi stessi
Khakas: позыбыс (pozıbıs)
Nahuatl: tehhuān
Northern Sami: iežame du, iežamet pl
Portuguese: nos (pt), nós (pt)
Romani: amen
Romanian: noi înșine m, noi însene f
Russian: себя́ (ru) (sebjá)
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: se
Spanish: nos (es), nosotros (es)
Sranan Tongo: wisrefi
Swedish: oss själva
Tuvan: бодувус (boduvus)
Ukrainian: себе́ (sebé), собі́ (uk) (sobí)
Yakut: бэйэбит (beyebit)

emphatic: we

American Sign Language: A@IpsiChest-RadialBack A@ContraChest-RadialBack
Arabic: أَنْفُسَنَا (ʔanfusanā)
Belarusian: мы са́мі (my sámi)
Catalan: mateixos (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 我們自己 / 我们自己, 我们自己 (wǒmén zìjǐ)
Finnish: itse (fi)
Irish: sinn féin
Latvian: mēs paši m pl, mēs pašas f pl
Nahuatl: tehhuāntin
Northern Sami: ieža
Portuguese: nós mesmos
Russian: са́ми (ru) (sámi)
Slovak: my sami, my same
Spanish: nosotros mismos
Swedish: (vi (sv)) själva (sv)
Ukrainian: ми сами́ (my samý), ми самі́ (my samí)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Dutch: ^{(please verify)} onszelf (nl)
French: ^{(please verify)} nous-mêmes (fr)
German: ^{(please verify)} wir selbst
Italian: ^{(please verify)} noi stessi
Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 我々自身 (われわれじしん, wareware jishin)
Korean: ^{(please verify)} 우리 자신 (uri jasin)

			personal pronoun			possessive pronoun	possessive determiner
			subjective	objective	reflexive	possessive pronoun	possessive determiner
first person	singular		I me (colloquial)	me	myself me mysen	mine	my mine (before vowels, archaic) me
first person	plural		we	us	ourselves ourself oursen	ours	our
second person	singular	standard (historically formal)	you	you	yourself yoursen	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
	singular	archaic (historically informal)	thou	thee	thyself theeself thysen	thine	thy thine (before vowels)
	plural	standard	you ye (archaic)	you	yourselves	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
		colloquial	you all y'all you guys	you all y'all you guys	y'allselves	y'all's you guys' your guys' (proscribed)	y'all's your all's (nonstandard) you guys' your guys' (proscribed)
		informal / dialectal	(see list of dialectal forms at you* and inflected forms in those entries*)
third person	singular	masculine	he	him	himself hisself (archaic) hissen	his hisn (obsolete outside dialects)	his
		feminine	she	her	herself hersen	hers hern (obsolete outside dialects)	her
		neuter	it hit	it hit	itself hitself	its his (archaic)	its his (archaic) hits
		genderless	they	them	themself, themselves	theirs	their
		nonspecific (formal)	one	one	oneself	–	one's
	plural		they	them hem, 'em	themselves theirsen	theirs theirn (obsolete outside dialects)	their