Reflexive Verbs and Pronouns s1

Reflexive Verbs and Pronouns

Reflexive verbs are verbs that show that the subject (doer) of the sentence does the action (verb) talked about in the sentence to himself / herself. To indicate a reflexive action, the and the object pronoun must agree with one another.

The reflexive pronouns are: me myself te yourself (informal, singular) se himself, herself, itself, yourself (Ud. form) nos ourselves se themselves, yourselves Examples:

Yo me baño. This sentence is reflexive because the “doer” is “I” (Note the “o” ending on the verb.) and the object pronoun or “receiver” is also “I” expressed in the “myself” form ( in Spanish, “me”). This sentence says “I bathe myself” and is reflexive.

Mi mamá me baña. This sentence says “My mother bathes me”. It is not reflexive because the “doer” (mother) is not the receiver of the action of the verb. (Note that the “a” ending on the verb corresponds to “she” while the object pronoun or “receiver” is “me”. To be reflexive, this sentence would have had to say, “Mi mamá se baña.”

COMMON REFLEXIVE VERBS All verbs are required knowledge for Spanish 2 acostarse to go to bed irse to go away / leave afeitarse to shave lavarse to wash arreglarse to get ready levantarse to get up asustarse to be frightened llamarse to be called/named bañarse to bathe maquillarse to put on makeup callarse to be silent / to be still marcharse to go away / leave cepillarse to brush pasearse* to take a walk cortarse to have cut/get cut peinarse to comb one’s hair darse prisa to be in a hurry pintarse to put on makeup desayunarse*to eat breakfast ponerse to put on/become despertarse to awaken quedarse to remain dormirse to fall asleep quitarse to take off divertirse to have fun secarse to dry oneself enfadarse to get angry sentarse to sit down enojarse to get angry sentirse to feel equivocarse to be mistaken vestirse to dress oneself * Reflexive use of this verb is optional.