In this edition: more about your daily routine Lesson 43 Notes CoffeeBreakSpanish.com Me levanto y me ducho Reflexive verbs Programme Notes Coffee Break Spanish notes guide you through the content of each lesson. In this week s notes we ll discuss the concept of reflexive verbs. A little review To begin with, let s consider one of the first phrases you learned back in the early lessons of Coffee Break Spanish: me llamo... At the time we translated this as my name is..., or I am called.... However, the actual literal translation of this phrase is I call myself. It s an example of a reflexive verb. In many languages reflexive verbs are used to talk about things that you do to yourself. Obvious examples include to wash yourself, to dress yourself, etc. However, in some languages verbs are used reflexively when they re normal in English. Think of the verb to shower (or to take a shower ) in English. In Spanish you can t say I shower : you must say I shower myself. Starting the day the reflexive way... It so happens that in Spanish most of what happens in the morning and in the evening involves reflexive verbs. Starting with waking up and getting up, you need to use reflexive verbs throughout this part of the day. some reflexive verbs me despierto me levanto me ducho me baño me afeito me maquillo me peino me visto I wake (myself) up I get (myself) up I shower (myself) I bath (myself) / I have a bath I shave (myself) I put on my makeup I do my hair I dress (myself) Note that in many cases the word myself is not really necessary. Often there is a more effective translation. Consider for example I shower (myself) and I have/take a shower, or I shave (myself) and I have a shave, or just I shave. As you get more familiar with reflexive verbs you ll encounter verbs which don t have any self element in their translation. Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 43 page 1
...and ending it reflexively too! By coincidence (or design!) the words which describe the later part of the day are also reflexive. more reflexive verbs me acuesto me desnudo me duermo I go to bed I get undressed I go to sleep Enough about me! Most of the verbs so far are more or less regular. As with almost all I forms, they end in -o. It s very important to remember that the word me does not mean I, but rather myself. When it comes to talking about other people, whether you, he, she, etc. the me is replaced by another reflexive pronoun. In addition to the changing reflexive pronoun, the verb form also has to change. Have a look at the table below which shows the you informal form of some of the verbs we ve covered so far. 2nd person examples of reflexive verbs te despiertas te levantas te duchas te maquillas te vistes te acuestas you wake up you get up you shower / have a shower you put on your makeup you get dressed you go to bed In most of the examples above the -o ending turns to -as, although as you have probably noticed that in the case of te vistes the ending is -es. You also need to make sure that you use the reflexive pronoun te in each of these cases. Conjugating reflexive verbs To conjugate a reflexive verb in its six parts you need to learn the six reflexive pronouns. These are very easy to learn and they make perfect sense! reflexive pronouns me te se nos os se Now let s consider a reflexive verb in a full conjugation. The infinitive form of a reflexive verb adds the se pronoun to the end of the infinitive, so to shower oneself is ducharse, and to get up is levantarse, etc. Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 43 page 2
We ll take the verb to get up. We have to use the standard endings we now know for an -ar verbs, and add the reflexive pronouns: levantarse - to get up me levanto te levantas se levanta nos levantamos os levantáis se levantan Here is a translation of each part of this verb: levantarse - to get up I get up you (inf. singular) get up he/she/it gets up you (formal singular) get up we get up you (inf. plural) get up they get up you (formal plural) get up Most of the other verbs work in exactly the same way. ducharse - to shower me ducho te duchas se ducha nos duchamos os ducháis se duchan maquillarse - to put on makeup me maquillo te maquillas se maquilla nos maquillamos os maquilláis se maquillan More time phrases In the last episode we learned some basic time phrases. We can now add to these: a las cinco at five o clock a las cinco y cinco at 5:05 a las cinco y diez at 5:10 a las cinco y cuarto at 5:15 a las cinco y veinte at 5:20 a las cinco y veinticinco at 5:25 Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 43 page 3
a las cinco y media at 5:30 a las seis menos veinticinco at 5:35 a las seis menos veinte at 5:40 a las seis menos cuarto at 5:45 a las seis menos diez at 5:50 a las seis menos cinco at 5:55 Comprehension text Check how much you understand of this text. Juan se despierta a las siete y se levanta a las siete y cuarto. Desayuna a las siete y media. Se ducha y se afeita a las ocho menos cuarto. Antes de salir de la casa se viste. Sale de la casa a eso de las ocho y cuarto y llega al trabajo a las nueve. Después del trabajo vuelve a casa y descansa un poco. Cena con su familia a las ocho. A las diez y media se acuesta y se duerme sobre las once. Now try to change all the 3rd person verbs in this passage into 1st person verbs: a las siete y a las siete y cuarto. a las siete y media. y a las ocho menos cuarto. Antes de salir de la casa. de la casa a eso de las ocho y cuarto y al trabajo a las nueve. Después del trabajo a casa y un poco. con familia a las ocho. A las diez y media y sobre las once. Answers to this exercise can be found on page 5. Having read and understood the text, try to make up one yourself. Don t forget that you can post your own efforts on the Radio Lingua Network forum: Direct link: http://www.radiolinguamedia.com/bb/cbf-bb/viewtopic.php?t=37 Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 43 page 4
Answers to exercise: Me despierto a las siete y me levanto a las siete y cuarto. Desayuno a las siete y media. Me ducho y me afeito a las ocho menos cuarto. Antes de salir de la casa me visto. Salgo de la casa a eso de las ocho y cuarto y llego al trabajo a las nueve. Después del trabajo vuelvo a casa y descanso un poco. Ceno con mi familia a las ocho. A las diez y media me acuesto y me duermo sobre las once. All materials Copyright Radio Lingua Ltd 2007 Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 43 page 5