Originally Posted by
happyclogs Ok, in response to Doninphxaz's point I started a new thread - I need a more thorough explanation anyway.
So, as far as I see it you use себя when you are the both the subject and the object of the sentence. So: она говорила о себе. This makes sense, and you can obviously use себя in much the same way with any of the other cases (excluding the nominative).
But I can't really understand where сам fits in... I've been told that it effectively means "by oneself" or "on (my) own", but then wouldn't с собой mean the same thing?
If not, I can appreciate when you'd use сам сама само сами, but when would you use all the other cases (i.e. самого самой самим самому самых etc) in a sentence? I think I just need a few examples and then I'll understand because I had a similar problem with all the весь words but seeing how they were used really helped.
Thank you.