AP Spanish Study Sheet: Reflexive Pronouns and Verbs

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1 Page 1 of 5 Figure It Out! Ayer me acosté a las seis pero no me levanté hasta las siete. Cuando me levanté me afeité, me duché, me sequé, me vestí, me preparé para el día y luego desayuné. A las ocho me fui a la escuela. How does the word in front of each verb in this paragraph about this person's personal routine affect the meaning of the verb? Introduction A verb is reflexive when the subject receives the action of the verb. That is, the subject does the action to or for himself, herself, themselves, etc. Other times, a reflexive verb simply indicates that the subject receives the action, and that the performer of the action is unknown or unimportant. Reflexive verbs can also be used to indicate reciprocal action, meaning something that two people or things do to each other. A reflexive pronoun always accompanies a reflexive verb. They agree in person and number with each other. Reflexive pronouns generally precede the conjugated reflexive verb. Reflexive Pronouns The purpose of reflexive object pronouns is to show that the action of the verb remains with the subject. The following table shows the six reflexive pronouns in Spanish, along with their English equivalents in parentheses. REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS me nos (myself) (ourselves) te os (yourself [informal]) (yourselves [informal]) se se (himself, herself, (themselves, yourself [formal]) yourselves [formal]) Reflexive pronouns are always placed before the conjugated reflexive verb. They can also be attached to the end of infinitives, present participles, and affirmative commands. A written accent is often necessary to keep the original stress of present participles and affirmative commands when reflexive pronouns are attached. Also, reflexive pronouns agree in person and number with the conjugated verb. For example: Me levanto temprano. Necesitamos levantarnos temprano mañana. Ellos no están levantándose temprano hoy. Levántate ahora. I get [myself] up early. We need to get [ourselves] up early tomorrow. They are not getting [themselves] up early today. Get [yourself] up now. When a reflexive verb is after another verb (an auxiliary, or "helping" verb), and the reflexive verb is either an infinitive, a present participle, or an affirmative command, the

2 Page 2 of 5 reflexive pronoun can be placed either before both verbs or attached to the end of the second verb. For example, you could say the following: Tenemos que levantarnos temprano mañana. OR Nos tenemos que levantar temprano mañana. Ellos no están levantándose temprano hoy. OR Ellos no se están levantando temprano hoy. If the meaning of the reflexive pronoun is not clear from the context of the sentence, then a prepositional phrase involving mismo or propio is used to clarify its reflexive meaning (directed to oneself), or the phrase el uno al otro is used to signify reciprocity (directed to each other or one another). For example: Se vio a sí mismo. (He saw himself.) Se escribieron el uno al otro. (They wrote to each other.) Reflexive Verbs A reflexive verb is formed by adding a reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, os, se) before the conjugated verb or attached to the end of an infinitive verb, present participle, or affirmative command. The reflexive pronoun used agrees in person and number with the conjugated verb. The following table shows the conjugation of a common reflexive verb. BAÑARSE (to bath oneself) me baño nos bañamos (I wash myself) (we wash ourselves) te bañas os bañáis (you wash yourself) (you [plural] wash yourselves) se baña (he washes himself) (she washes herself) (you wash yourself) se bañan (they wash themselves) (they wash themselves) (you [plural] yourselves) In Spanish, when reflexive verbs appear in vocabulary lists they have the reflexive pronoun se attached to the end of the infinitive verb. Without the reflexive pronoun the verb is not reflexive. You should also note that not all verbs can be reflexive and that a few verbs are always used reflexively. Also, for some verbs, the meaning changes when they are used reflexively. The following table lists some typical verbs in Spanish. Most can either be reflexive or non-reflexive, but a few can only be of one type. The equivalents are given in English. Pay special attention to the reflexive verbs and make a note as to which ones are stem-changing.

3 Page 3 of 5 NON-REFLEXIVE VERBS REFLEXIVE VERBS aburrir to bore aburrirse to get bored acordar (ue) to agree acordarse (ue) to remember acostar (ue) to put to bed acostarse (ue) to go to bed afeitar to shave afeitarse to take or have a shave almorzar (ue) to (have) lunch arrepentirse (ie,i) to repent arreglar to arrange, fix arreglarse to get dressed, ready asistir (a) to attend atreverse a to dare bañar to bathe bañarse to take or have a bath caer to fall caerse to fall down callar to silence, shut up callarse to keep quiet, remain silent cambiar to change cambiarse (de ropa) to change clothes cansar to tire cansarse to get tired casar to perform a to become married casarse con marriage ceremony to someone cepillar to brush cepillarse to brush oneself dar to give darse cuenta de to realize desayunar (ie) to have breakfast desayunarse (ie) to have breakfast despedir (i,i) to fire despedirse (i,i) say goodbye despertar (ie) to wake someone up despertarse (ie) to wake up oneself divertir (ie,i) to entertain, divert divertirse (ie,i) to have a good time dormir (ue,u) to sleep dormirse (ue,u) to fall asleep duchar to give a shower to ducharse to take a shower encontrar (ue) to find encontrarse (ue) to meet, run into enojar to anger enojarse to get angry ir to go irse to leave, go away jactarse de to boast lavar to wash lavarse (la/el ) to wash oneself levantar to lift, raise levantarse to get up llamar to call llamarse to be called, named maquillar to make up (with to put make-up on maquillarse cosmetics) oneself morir (ue,u) to die (abruptly, as of an accident, war, etc.) morirse (ue,u) to die (as from natural causes; also "to die" figuratively) negar (ie) to deny negarse (ie) to refuse parecer to seem parecerse to resemble

4 Page 4 of 5 pasear to take for a walk, to go for a walk, pasearse ride ride peinar to comb peinarse to comb one's hair poner to put ponerse to put on clothing preocupar to worry, preoccupy preocuparse to worry, care prepar to prepare prepararse to get ready probar (ue) to try, taste probarse (ue) to try on quedar to remain, fit quedarse to stay or remain behind quejarse de to complain about quitar to take away quitarse to take off (clothing) secar to dry secarse to get dried off sentar (ie) to sit (someone) sentarse (i) to sit down sentir (ie,i) to feel, sense sentirse (ie,i) to feel (a certain way) vestir (i,i) to dress vestirse (i,i) to get dressed Remember that a verb is reflexive when the subject and the object are the same. For example, in the sentence "I washed myself," the subject is "I" and the object is "myself," both 1 st person singular. However, the sentence "I washed the car" is not reflexive because the subject (I) and the object (car) are not the same. By the same token, the Spanish sentence Yo me lavo is reflexive because yo and me refer to the same person. More Information on Reflexive Verbs and Pronouns: Sentence Structure and Meaning The following are a few important points that you should learn in connection with the meaning and usage of reflexive verbs and pronouns. Whenever a verb directly follows a preposition, it remains in the infinitive form. For reflexive verbs, the ending -se changes to agree with the subject. Note the differences in the following sentences. Antes de acostarme, yo hago mi tarea. (Before going to bed I do my homework.) Antes de acostarte, tú llamas a tu novia. (Before going to bed you call your girlfriend.) Antes de acostarse, ella escribe en su diario. (Before going to bed she writes in her journal.) Antes de acostarnos, nosotros leemos un libro. (Before going to bed we read a book.) Antes de acostaros, vosotras habláis por teléfono. (Before going to bed y'all talk on the phone.) Antes de acostarse, ellos miran la televisión. (Before going to bed they watch TV.) In Spanish, the reflexive construction can be used even when some other noun or pronoun is already present as the direct object, to emphasize who is performing the action of the sentence.

5 Page 5 of 5 Dónde están las galletas? Juan se las comió. (Where are the cookies? Juan at them all up.) Hay limonada? No. Tú te la tomaste. (Is there lemonade? No. You drank it all up.) In English, many verbs can be used transitively (with a direct object) or intransitively (without a direct object). But in Spanish, these intransitive constructions often involve the use of a reflexive pronoun. Transitive El fuego secó nuestros zapatos. (The fire dried our shoes.) Intransitive Nuestros zapatos se secaron al fuego. (Our shoes dried in front of the fire.)