"Ili sin komprenas reciproke."
Translation:They understand each other.
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Without reciproke, would this sentence mean "They understand themselves"? And is there any other way to clarify that they understand each other?
Well, I always use "Ili komprenas unu la alian". Literally, "Ili sin komprenas" means they understand themselves. So basically a russian and an englishman talks and they don't speak each other's language, then you could say "Ili sin komprenas" - meaning that they understand what they say but we have no info whether they understand each other or not.
"Ili komprenas unu la alian" = "(ili) Unu komprenas la alian"... So, yes! It's mutual.
Is "sin" the reflexive pronoun for "ili"? My gut feeling is that this is the same as " ils se comprennent", where "se" in French is the reflexive pronoun for ils.
Si is the third-person reflexive, both singular and plural. It takes the "-n" here because it's being used in the accusative. (It can also take an "-a" when used as a possessive.)
Something like: They understand mutually.
Still you need "themselves" i.e. sin (si, sin, sia... mi, min, mia...)
Maybe you could say "Ni komprenas ilin kaj ili komprenas reciproke" like...they understand [some third party] back.
This sentence simply makes no sense. What do you think of when you use reciproke?
what is the need of reciproke here? does "Ili sin komprenas" not mean the same thing?
"Ili sin komprenas" would mean something like "They understand themselves".
What's the difference between 'sin' and 'mem'? According to the dictionary hints, 'sin' means themselves, but wouldn't 'ili mem' mean the same?
'Mem' is used emphatically rather than reflexively, as in 'mi mem ' = 'I myself'.
Could you alternatively say "Ili komprenas sin reciproke?" Or is the given syntax the only correct one?