How to reflexively use the verb вынимать?

Question

I found this definition located on AbbyyLingvo, and was curious to how to use it in a reflexive manner. For example, if I wanted to say, "I am withdrawing myself from the situation" would I simple say, using вынимать, "Я вынимаю себя из ситуации?" Or could I use a 'ся' ending, "Я вынимаюсь из ситуации?" Or how could you say, "The government is 'withdrawing/pulling out' of the war?

Sometimes I am confused as to when I can use a a reflexive verb or 'себя.' I wanted to say, "I cannot express myself correctly in Russian," and a native speaker said I could say, "Я не могу выражать себя правильно на русском" or "Я не могу выражаться правильно на русском," both of which carry the same meaning. Which one is correct?

вынимать

(что-л.) несовер. - вынимать; совер. - вынуть take out, pull out; extract (извлекать); draw out (деньги из банка и т. п. || money from bank, etc.)

(ленту) unload, (напр., разъём из гнезда) unplug

withdraw

take out

Answer 1

"I am withdrawing myself from the situation" - вынимать is not the best word here. Вытаскивать is better in this particular example. Also, neither has have a reflexive form (well, you can make it, but it would sound weird or/and funny 8) ). "Я вытаскиваю себя из этой ситуации" sounds more Russian. We are kinda dragging or pulling ourselves from tricky situations.

Вытаскивать

"Я вытягиваю себя из этой ситуации" - also possible, more slang.

"Я выбираюсь из этой ситуации" - an example with reflexive verb.

"Я выхожу из этой ситуации" - an example without reflexive words or endings

"Я вылезаю из этой ситуации" - more colloquial/slang

"The government is 'withdrawing/pulling out' of the war" - in this example, "выйти из войны" could work, especially if you mean a country. http://wordweb.ru/history_ww2/50_02.htm the title of this article is "An attempt for Finland to pull out of the war". Your example would be something like: "Правительство вышло из войны". Though, it sounds a bit strange to me, because we usually mean the country pulling out of the war, not specifically it's government. So, with a loose translation, I would say "Страна вышла из войны".

"I cannot express myself correctly in Russian" - both are possible, though it is better to use a reflexive verb here, "выражать себя" - is a bit lyrical. "Я не могу правильно выражаться по-русски/на русском".

A little remark on "can" here. You may say "Я не умею правильно выражаться по-русски/на русском" and it would mean that you cannot express yourself correctly because you haven't learned how to do that yet. This would sound a bit better because that way you suggest that you are learning Russian and trying to express yourself correctly, and that gives you more respect. You can add "ещё/пока ещё" (still/for now) to make it even more naturally sounding. "Я пока ещё не умею правильно выражаться по-русски" - sounds pretty natural.

Answer 2

Вынимать 'to take out' is used for taking out a material object from a material container, no way using it while talking about situations, wars, governments, banks, or anything that abstract. The same goes about its reflexive counterpart, выниматься 'to be [able to be] taken out'. You can use this verb to talk about taking a handkerchief out of the pocket, fingers out of one's mouth, a plug from a socket, a memory card from a card-reader, a photo from your album, a $100 bill out of your wallet, etc.