خود

What it means

خود (khod) is the Persian reflexive and emphatic pronoun meaning self, oneself, or own. When used reflexively it refers back to the subject of the sentence: خودش رفت (khod-ash raft, he himself went, or he went by himself). When used as a possessive intensifier it means own: خانه خودم (khune-ye khodam, my own house). The spoken colloquial form خودش / خودم / خودت (khodash, khodam, khodat) with person-agreement suffixes is the standard form in conversation. خود without suffixes appears in formal or literary Persian. An important compound is خودبه‌خود (khod-be-khod, by itself, on its own, spontaneously), used to describe things that happen without intervention.

How to use it

• خودم درستش می‌کنم. (khodam dorostesh mikonam.) “I’ll fix it myself.”
• اون خودش گفت که نمیاد. (un khodash goft ke nemiâd.) “He himself said he’s not coming.”
• اینو خودت نوشتی؟ (ino khodat neveshti?) “Did you write this yourself?”
• خودبه‌خود حل شد. (khod-be-khod hall shod.) “It solved itself, it resolved on its own.”

Cultural note

خودم می‌دونم (khodam midunam, I know myself, I know what I’m doing) is a phrase Iranians use to assert independence or push back gently against unsolicited advice. It is not aggressive but it signals that the speaker does not need guidance on this matter. The related phrase خودت باش (khodat bâsh, be yourself) is a common piece of encouragement in Iranian friendships, roughly equivalent to just be yourself in English, and it reflects a genuine cultural value placed on authenticity (خودبودن) within intimate relationships, even within a society that also prizes social performance and ta’arof.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab