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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nOne of the biggest confusions for Spanish learners is the reflexive. It is a feature of Spanish that\u2019s really different to English, so it is really hard to understand just by translating directly between the languages. So, let\u2019s break down Spanish reflexive verbs and see how they\u2019re used.<\/p>\n
A reflexive verb is a verb which has a self-referential pronoun, either next to it or attached to it. A self-referential pronoun means that the subject of the verb and the pronoun are the same. Essentially, in some cases, you can think of it like the English \u201cself\u201d. Of course, that\u2019s not always the case, which is why it does lead to some confusion, but we\u2019ll see why.<\/p>\n
Reflexive verbs are formed with two main parts. The main verb is who is performing the action, and the reflexive pronoun is who the action is directed at. In the case of reflexive verbs, these will both refer to the same person.<\/p>\n
The good news is that there are no new conjugations or verb-endings for reflexive verbs. The only thing you have to remember is the pronoun which goes with each of the person forms. Once you know these, you can use them in any tense or verb formation \u2013 the reflexive pronouns don\u2019t change. Also, they are the same whether it\u2019s an -ir, -er, or -ar verb. So, let\u2019s have a quick look at how they\u2019re formed with an example:<\/p>\n
General verb:<\/strong> levantar | to pick up<\/p>\n Reflexive verb:<\/strong> levantarse <\/strong>| to get (oneself) up<\/p>\n 1st<\/sup> person: (yo) me<\/strong> levanto<\/p>\n 2nd<\/sup> person: (t\u00fa) te<\/strong> levantas<\/p>\n 3rd<\/sup> person: (\u00e9l\/\u00e9lla) se<\/strong> levanta<\/p>\n 1st<\/sup> person plural: (nosotros) nos<\/strong> levantamos<\/p>\n 2nd<\/sup> person plural: (vosotros) os<\/strong> levant\u00e1is<\/p>\n 3rd<\/sup> person plural: (ellos\/ellas\/ustedes) se<\/strong> levantan<\/p>\n As you can see \u201clevantar\u201d is a regular -ar verb. The only difference between this and a regular conjugation is the reflexive pronoun that comes before the verb.<\/p>\n There are some verbs which you will almost never see without their attached reflexive pronoun, so they should always be used with the pronoun attached. In this case, it generally has very little to do with the sense of \u201cself\u201d, and is simply something that needs to be remembered or picked up the more you use the language. Here are some examples, but it\u2019s definitely not an exhaustive list, so keep an eye out for these as you get to see and hear more Spanish sentences.<\/p>\n There are many verbs which have a different meaning when they are reflexive than they do without the reflexive pronouns. See the example with \u201clevantar\u201d above. The verbs which take on the reflexive pronoun are usually inherently self-directed. Even if there is no sense of \u201cself\u201d in the English translations, when you think about it there is a meaning of doing something to yourself in all the reflexive versions.<\/p>\n Take a look at these examples:<\/p>\n Ex: Ella duerme<\/strong> ocho horas cada noche. | She sleeps 8 hours a night.<\/p>\n Ex: El ni\u00f1o se durmi\u00f3<\/strong> a las nueve. | The boy fell asleep at 9.<\/p>\n Ex: Mi madre me despierta<\/strong> con el desayuno. | My mother wakes me up with breakfast.<\/p>\n Ex: Me despert\u00e9<\/strong> para hacer el desayuno. | I woke up to make breakfast.<\/p>\n Ex: Mi hermano lav\u00f3 su auto. | My brother washed his car.<\/p>\n Ex: Me lavo el pelo una vez a la semana. | I wash my hair once a week.<\/p>\n Ex: Me molesta<\/strong> que no pare de hablar. | It annoys me how Sofia doesn\u2019t stop talking.<\/p>\n Ex: No te<\/strong> molestes<\/strong> a pararte. | Don\u2019t bother to stand up. (Note how there are two reflexives working in this sentence)<\/p>\n Ex: Siempre que la veo recuerdo<\/strong> aquella noche. | Every time I see her I remember that night.<\/p>\n Ex: Me record\u00e9<\/strong> que mi esposa es la mujer que m\u00e1s amo en este mundo. | I reminded byself that my wife is the woman I love most in this world.<\/p>\n For verbs that have strong meanings on their own, adding the reflexive pronoun just adds the sense that the action is being done to oneself instead of to someone else. Here are some common examples.<\/p>\n Hablarse \u2013 to talk to oneself<\/p>\n Mirarse \u2013 to look at oneself<\/p>\n Ex: Me miro en el espejo y no me gusta lo que veo. | I look at myself in the mirror and I don\u2019t like what I see.<\/p>\n Dudarse \u2013 to doubt oneself<\/p>\n Entenderse \u2013 to understand oneself<\/p>\n Encontrarse \u2013 to find oneself<\/p>\n Hacerse \u2013 to make oneself (something)<\/p>\n Ex: Me hago una paella para el almuerzo. | I make myself a paella for lunch.<\/p>\n Amarse \u2013 to love oneself<\/p>\n Ex: Ese tipo es muy cre\u00eddo, parece que en verdad se ama. | That guy is so stuck up, it seems like he loves himself.<\/p>\n Get the Spanish Reflexive Verbs Worksheet PDF<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 over 200 fill-in-the-blank cloze sentences to practice conjugating Ir in context (or sign up for Clozemaster<\/a> to play thousands of Spanish fill-in-the-blank cloze sentences ?).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One of the more seemingly strange uses of the reflexive is where it\u2019s used in a normal verb followed by an object. Here, it could carry the reflexive pronoun or not without changing the meaning of the sentence. The only reason it\u2019s used is for emphasis on the subject being the person carrying out the action for themselves.<\/p>\n Some examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n Ex: Mi abuela se comi\u00f3 una manzana antes de irse. | My grandmother ate an apple before leaving.<\/p>\n Ex: Cuando mi novio termin\u00f3 conmigo, pas\u00e9 tres d\u00edas vi\u00e9ndome pel\u00edculas y comiendo helado. | When my boyfriend broke up with me, I spent three days watching movies and eating ice-cream.<\/p>\n Ex: Miguel sale de trabajar y se bebe una cerveza. | Miguel gets off work and drinks a beer.<\/p>\n Ex: T\u00e9nte un buen d\u00eda en la escuela! | Have a good day at school!<\/p>\n When you want to explain that an action has been carried out but you don\u2019t want to mention the subject, a good strategy is to use the reflexive structure. This also works when you want to make a general statement without speaking to anyone in particular. This is similar to how we would use \u201cone\u201d or \u201cyou\u201d in a generic sense in English.<\/p>\n Let’s see how it plays out with some examples.<\/p>\n Ex: No se puede comprar nuestra tierra. | You can\u2019t buy our land. \/ Our land can\u2019t be bought.<\/p>\n Ex: S\u00f3lo se vive una vez. | You only live once.<\/p>\n Ex: Se sabe que Pablo Picasso era un artista extraordin\u00e1rio. | It is known that Pablo Picasso was an extraordinary artist.<\/p>\n Ex: Este pueblo se conoce como Puerto Dorado. | This town is known as Puerto Durado.<\/p>\n There is one thing you need to be careful of when looking for reflexive verbs. Reciprocal verbs look the same in form as Spanish reflexive verbs in the plural, but their meaning is different. Reciprocal has the meaning of \u201ceach other\u201d Usually the context will tell you which one to employ, but sometimes it is ambiguous, so it could be either \u201ceach other\u201d or \u201cthemselves\/ourselves\u201d.<\/p>\n E.g:<\/p>\n If you want to make it less ambiguous, if you mean each other, you can add \u201cel uno al otro\u201d or \u201centre ellos\u201d. If you mean themselves\/ourselves, you can add \u201ca nosotros mismos\/as\u201d or \u201ca ellos mismos\/as\u201d to the end of the sentence.<\/p>\n E.g:<\/p>\n Se ayudan el uno al otro. | They help each other.<\/p>\n Se juegan entre ellos. | They play with each other.<\/p>\n Se tratan mal a ellos mismos. | They treat themselves badly.<\/p>\n Another thing that also sparks frustration in Spanish reflexive verb learners is the word order. In reality, it should actually be easier because the word order is pretty flexible. Let\u2019s look at how it works.<\/p>\n Firstly, for conjugated verbs, the order will always be the same as what you can see in the conjugation table at the top of this page \u2013 i.e: this order is always fixed<\/em>.<\/p>\n If the verb is not conjugated, and instead is in its infinitive form, there are two positions for the reflexive pronoun to go. The first is before the conjugated verb in the sentence, and the second is attached to the end of the infinitive reflexive verb. This does not change the meaning of the verb at all, and it is entirely up to you which position you put it in.<\/p>\n No me quer\u00eda levantar __.<\/p>\n No __ quer\u00eda levantarme. | I didn\u2019t want to get up.<\/p>\n Mar\u00eda nunca __ quiere atreverse a hacer nada para no fallar.<\/p>\n Mar\u00eda nunca se quiere atrever __ a hacer nada para no fallar. | Mar\u00eda is never going to dare to do anything in order not to fail.<\/p>\n Remember, you can only put the pronoun in one of the two available positions, never both. See if you can find some reflexive sentences and play around with them, moving the pronoun to the other correct position.<\/p>\n Well, this brings us to the end of our lesson on Spanish reflexive verbs. I hope that has cleared up what they do, and why we see “se” so much in Spanish sentences. Now go forth and talk about yourself!<\/p>\n Clozemaster <\/strong>has been designed to help you learn the language in context by filling in the gaps in authentic sentences. With features such as Grammar Challenges, Cloze-Listening, and Cloze-Reading, the app will let you emphasize all the competencies necessary to become fluent in Spanish.<\/p>\nUses of Spanish reflexive verbs<\/h2>\n
Verbs that are always reflexive<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Verbs that are sometimes reflexive<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Dormir \u2013 to sleep | Dormirse \u2013 to fall asleep<\/h4>\n
Despertar \u2013 to wake (someone) up | Despertarse \u2013 to wake up<\/h4>\n
Lavar \u2013 to wash | Lavarse \u2013 to wash (oneself)<\/h4>\n
Molestar \u2013 to annoy | Molestarse \u2013 to be bothered<\/h4>\n
Recordar \u2013 to remember | Recordarse \u2013 to remind oneself<\/h4>\n
Verbs that are only reflexive when they mean \u201cself\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nPractice makes fluent. ?<\/div>\nVerbs when they are followed by direct objects<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Comerse (una manzana)<\/h4>\n
Verse (una pel\u00edcula)<\/h4>\n
Beberse (una cerveza)<\/h4>\n
Tenerse (un buen d\u00eda)<\/h4>\n
Generic \u201cyou\u201d\/ passive sentences<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Se puede<\/h4>\n
Se vive<\/h4>\n
Se sabe<\/h4>\n
Se conoce<\/h4>\n
Not to be confused with Spanish reflexive verbs: Reciprocal verbs<\/h2>\n
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Word order of Spanish reflexive pronouns<\/h2>\n
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\n \n Learn Spanish in context with Clozemaster<\/h2>\n
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