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As I understood the difference between "sin-" and "mem-":

Mi sinmortigis.

I killed myself (I killed me)

Mi memmortigis la ŝafon.

I killed the sheep myself (I killed it on my own)

But someone told me that "sinmortigi" and "memmortigi" are actually the same! Really? Reta Vortaro says that "sinmortigo" = "memmortigo". Is that true, and should we avoid that?

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  • What about memfido then? Should it really be sinfido?
    – Antonia Montaro
    Commented Oct 27, 2016 at 11:28

2 Answers 2

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Normale la verbo "memmortigi" bezonas rektan komplementon: Oni memmortigas sin. Mi memmortigos min. Jen kelkaj ekzemploj el Tekstaro pri „memmortigi”:

  • Ĉu oni estas certa, ke li sin memmortigis? petis la markizo.

  • Kiam oni estis certiginta al li, ke la junulo sin memmortigis, lia konvinko estis iom ŝancelita.

  • La malfeliĉulo sin memmortigis.

  • Kelkajn tagojn antaŭ kiam ŝi provis sin memmortigi.

  • Li konfesis al ŝi sian perfidon kaj ŝi provis memmortigi sin.

  • Iam mi pensis, ke mi certe neniam memmortigos min.

  • Mi pensis, ke certe neniam iu aktiva esperantisto memmortigus sin.

Vi vidos, ke ĉiam temas pri suicido, ne pri mortigo de iu/io alia, ĉar sekvas la rekta komplemento „sin” aŭ „min”. Teorie vi povas uzi alian rektan komplementon kiel en „Mi memmortigis la ŝafon”, se vi volas traduki I killed the sheep myself, sed multe pli kutime oni dirus: Mi mortigis la ŝafon mem.

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My own personal feeling is that memmortigo should be less preferred than sinmortigo. Regardless of your or my feeling on this matter, they are listed in many dictionaries as synonyms, and memmortigo (I'm a little surprised to find out) is vastly more common.

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  • Odd; I've seen "sinmortigo" in a few different contexts, but haven't seen "memmortigo" except in dictionaries and such. Not that I have very comprehensive experience, but it seems that if "memmortigo" were vastly more common, I would have seen it in use at some point. :-/
    – kristan
    Commented Oct 26, 2016 at 20:12
  • My subjective experience is the same as yours. However, I based the comment in my answer on a search in the Tekstaro where memmortigi is more common by many times over.
    – Tomaso Alexander
    Commented Oct 26, 2016 at 20:54
  • Upon reading Paŭl Peeraerts's answer and revisiting the Tekstaro, I confess I'm even more surprised. Memmortigi is rarely used as a verb, and sinmortigo only shows up as a verb one time. As he said, most (but not all) appearances of memmortigi include the reflexive pronoun. Again, my subjective impression is that sinmortigi is the "right" way to say it.
    – Tomaso Alexander
    Commented Oct 26, 2016 at 23:00

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