自己
zì jǐ
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Oneself; one's own: it points back to the subject, whoever that is. After a pronoun it adds emphasis: 我自己 'I myself', 他自己 'he himself'. Before a verb it means 'by oneself': 我自己做 'I will do it myself'. With 的 it means 'own': 自己的家 'one's own home'.
Tự mình, chính mình, bản thân; của mình: chỉ lại chính chủ ngữ, bất kể là ai. Đứng sau đại từ để nhấn mạnh: 我自己 (chính tôi), 他自己 (chính anh ấy). Đứng trước động từ thì là “tự”: 我自己做 (tôi tự làm). Thêm 的 thành “của mình”: 自己的家 (nhà của mình).
PronounRegister: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 063 (2026-11-14). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ · Vietnamese false friend: Idiomer entry “tự kỉ” (tu-ki). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “自己” mean?
Oneself; one's own: it points back to the subject, whoever that is. After a pronoun it adds emphasis: 我自己 'I myself', 他自己 'he himself'. Before a verb it means 'by oneself': 我自己做 'I will do it myself'. With 的 it means 'own': 自己的家 'one's own home'.
Is “自己” formal or informal?
自己 is generally neutral.