REG: Review Lesson - Reflexive Verbs

Reflexive Verbs

A reflexive sentence is one in which the subject does something to him/herself. Or put another way, the subject and the object of the sentence refer to the same person. The action of the verb in a reflexive sentence is reflected back onto the subject. Compare:

I read the book. I wash myself.

In the first sentence the action of the verb, reading, is passed onto an object, the book. The sentence is not reflexive. But in the second sentence, the person doing the washing and the person being washed is one and the same. The second sentence is reflexive.

In English we deal with reflexives by adding words like himself or yourself, etc. to the sentence. In Spanish we use a special class of verbs known as reflexive verbs which have their own unique rules.

In their infinitive form reflexive verbs end with a -se after the usual -ar, -er, or -ir. For example if you look up to shave in a Spanish/English dictionary, you'll find afeitarse and you can see from its -se ending that it is a reflexive verb. Here are some other reflexive verbs. Notice the -se endings:

-se Verbs
Spanish English
despertarse
levantarse
sentarse
acostarse		 to wake up
to get up
to sit down
to go to bed

Reflexive Pronouns

The -se at the end of each verb is something known as a reflexive pronoun and we'll need to pay special attention to it when we conjugate.

To conjugate a reflexive verb we first take the -se ending and place it in front of the verb. Then we conjugate as we normally would. Here's the process for saying I shave:

Yo afeitarse. changes to: Yo se afeitar. changes to: Yo se afeito.

Note:  In English when someone says I shave, it's understood that they're talking about shaving themselves. Rarely does anyone say, "I shave myself." But in Spanish we're a bit more explicit.

This is a good start, but we're not quite done. Just as the verb ending, -o, needs to agree with the subject, our reflexive pronoun, se, needs to agree as well. In this case, the se needs to become me:

Yo se afeito. changes to: Yo me afeito. - I shave (I shave myself).

So the reflexive pronoun se becomes me when the subject is yo. What about other subjects?

Here's the list of reflexive pronouns in Spanish, with subject pronouns for comparison:

Subject Pronouns vs. Reflexive Pronouns
Subject Pronouns Reflexive Pronouns
yo
tú
él/ella/Usted		 nosotros/nosotras
vosotros/vosotras
ellos/ellas/Ustedes		 me
te
se		 nos
os
se

Conjugated Example

Therefore, a complete set of sentences using afeitarse as the verb would look like this:

  • Yo me afeito.
  • Tú te afeitas.
  • Róger se afeita.
  • Nosotros nos afeitamos.
  • Vosotros os afeitáis.
  • Mis amigos se afeitan.

Video Presentation

View the following presentation on reflexive verbs. Take notes as you view the material as you will be responsible for the content. Be sure your speakers are turned up!

Practice Activity

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