🌱Reflexive Verbs

In Stage 1, you briefly met reflexive verbs when you learned "me llamo" (my name is / I call myself). Now it's time for the full treatment!

Reflexive verbs describe actions you do to yourself - washing yourself, getting yourself dressed, waking yourself up.

How do you spot a reflexive verb? Look at the infinitive form: it ends in se instead of just -r. For example: lavarse (to wash oneself), vestirse (to get dressed), levantarse (to get up).

When you conjugate a reflexive verb, the "se" changes to match the subject: me (yo), te (tú), se (él/ella), nos (nosotros), os (vosotros), se (ellos/ellas).

Reflexive pronouns go before the conjugated verb. They match the subject - "me" for yo, "te" for tú, "se" for él/ella/usted/ellos/ellas/ustedes, "nos" for nosotros, and "os" for vosotros. Let's see the full system with levantarse (to get up):

Here are the most common reflexive verbs for describing your morning. Notice that some are also stem-changing - despertarse (e→ie) and vestirse (e→i). You'll use these every time you describe your day:

The evening routine has its own set of reflexive verbs. Acostarse (o→ue) and dormirse (o→ue) are both stem-changing. Use sequence words like después (then), luego (next), and más tarde (later) to describe the order:

Many verbs can be used both reflexively (action on yourself) and non-reflexively (action on someone/something else). The meaning changes depending on whether you include the reflexive pronoun. This is a key distinction:

Reflexive pronouns normally go before the conjugated verb. But when there's an infinitive, you have TWO options - the pronoun can go before the first verb OR attach to the end of the infinitive. Both are correct and equally common:

To describe someone else's routine, use the third person reflexive pronoun "se." This works for él, ella, usted (singular) and ellos, ellas, ustedes (plural). This is how you talk about your family's and friends' daily habits: