I've just started learning esperanto and I've come across the words si and mem. I don't see any difference in these words. If there is a difference, could someone please explain the difference?

La afero estas memevidenta (obvious/self-evident). Li/ŝi/ili sin mortigis (committed suicide).

Mi mem ne havas tempon por plene klarigi.

Mi estas startigilo Esperanto lingvo.
I am still on the basics and have to use a dictionary time to time but I am getting good at it! I am now only on my second week. I have just turned 15. ^o^

Anyway "ŝi" meaning "She" is referring to a girl or a lady.
However "mem" is referring to an object or person about them or itself. From the dictionary, the vortaro says meaning: itself, herself, himself or self.

Bono sorto!

Please translate your message into English since we're in the English forum, sudanglo.

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Coolkidbloo: a 'startigilo' (start/ig/il/o) is a starter like a car starter, it's literally a tool (il) that causes (ig) something to start (start/).

Good luck would be "Bonan sorton" or "Bonan ŝancon". When giving greetings, we use the -n ending (because there is an understood noun and verb; for example, "Mi deziras al vi bonan sorton")

"si" is reflexive, meaning it refers back to the subject of a sentence. It is a way of repeating the subject. It refers to the subject of the same verb being used with "si". We use "si" only with the third person (he/she/it/they), not with first or second person (I/you).

Incidentally, since "si" refers to a subject, that means that "si" is never itself a subject.

"Ŝi vidis siajn amikojn" (She saw her [own] friends - not the friends of some other "she", but the friends of herself)

"mem" means something like "self". We use it with pronouns (including "si") to add emphasis. We use it with nouns to add the meaning "self".

fido = faith, confidence; memfido = self confidence

"Li razas sin" and "Li razas sin mem" both mean "He shaves himself", but the one with "mem" has greater emphasis on "himSELF".

The emphasis use of "mem" is more obvious when it's used with other pronouns.

You know that = Vi scias tion.
You yourself know that = Vi mem scias tion.

You can also use "mem" with nouns, also to add emphasis.

"En la urbo mem" = in the city itself (emphasizes that it's *in* the city, not near the city, around the city, etc)

rickyfreeman:I've just started learning esperanto and I've come across the words si and mem. I don't see any difference in these words. If there is a difference, could someone please explain the difference?

"si" is the reflexive third person pronoun.

First person:
Mi lavas min. = I wash myself.
Ni lavas nin. = We wash ourselves.

First person can use accusative form of the first person pronoun because it's unambiguous.

Second person:
Vi lavas vin. = You wash yourself.

Also unambiguous.

Third person:
Li lavas lin. = He washes him.
Li lavas sin. = He washes himself.
Ili lavas ilin. = They wash them.
Ili lavas sin. = They wash themselves.

Who washes whom? If you say "Li lavas lin.", li is washing someone else that isn't himself (a different masculine object). If you say "Li lavas sin.", li is washing himself, because "si" always refers back to the subject of the sentence (or that part of the sentence [but that is more advanced {and the real meaning of these sentences have been debated here}]).

"mem" is an emphasis particle:
Mi mem povas fari tiun. = I myself could do that. or I could do that myself.

I think the problem is that the English language uses x-self for both mem and si. The first is used to emphase that the action is being made by the very person and no one else. Shi mem skribis la leteron - it was her who had written the letter and no one else.

Thanks for all the help. I think I understand the difference now.

Forigite