Latin – ipse ipsa ipsum

This song reviews the forms of the Latin word ipse, ipsa, ipsum.

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If you know ille, illa, illud already, then ipse, ipsa, ipsum is easy to remember. It has the same endings (except for "ipsum" instead of "illud").

Dictionaries will tell you that it means "self" or "very." How is it used and how should you translate it? Well, it's intensifying or emphatic, which means that it emphasizes or intensifies the noun that it agrees with. "ego ipse" means "I myself." "verba ipsa" means "the words themselves." The sentence "imperator ipse ad castra hostium ivit" means "the general himself went to the enemy's camp," and "ipse" is emphasizing that it's the general who went, because perhaps we wouldn't expect a general to go himself. We might expect him to send someone else to go in his stead. When translating, just translate the noun and then the form of ipse with the appropriate English pronoun (them / her / him / it) and the correct number of "self" (self / selves). It's easier than it sounds.

What about the meaning "very"? We don't use this very often in colloquial English, but it's another way of emphasizing a word. For instance, if we were talking about some rare book and you were talking about how cool it would be to see it, rather than saying "I have that book itself with me!" I might say, "I have that very book with me!" And you'd go, "wow! That's amazing!"

You'll often see forms of "ipse, ipsa, ipsum" (as with "hic, haec, hoc" and "ille, illa, illud" and "is, ea, id") by itself (i.e. acting as a substantive), in which case you just supply the missing word, according to the gender. For instance, "ipsa" can mean "she herself," "ipse" can be "he himself."

LYRICS

nominative: ipse, ipsa, ipsum
genitive: ipsius
dative: ipsī
accusative: ipsum, ipsam, ipsum
ablative: ipsō, ipsā, ipsō

nominative: ipsī, ipsae, ipsa
genitive: ipsōrum, ipsārum, ipsōrum
dative: ipsīs
accusative: ipsōs, ipsās, ipsa
ablative: ipsīs

ego ipse hoc carmen ipsum tibi ipsī canō
I myself am singing this very song to you yourself

ipse, ipsa, ipsum has the same endings as "ille, illa, illud." It is called the emphatic or intensifying adjective (or pronoun).

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