Reflexive Verbs in Spanish

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” to the sentence. In Spanish we use a special class of verbs known as “reflexive verbs” which have their own unique rules.

Spanish Reflexive Verbs

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:

Spanish:	English:
despertarse	to wake up
levantarse	to get up
sentarse	to sit down
acostarse	to go to bed

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.

Conjugating Reflexive Verbs

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.
↓
Yo se afeitar.
↓
Yo se afeito.

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.
↓
Yo me afeito.
I shave. / I shave myself.

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

Spanish Reflexive Pronouns

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

subject pronouns:

yo	nosotros,-as
tú	vosotros,-as
él, ella, Ud.	ellos, ellas, Uds.

reflexive pronouns:

me	nos
te	os
se	se

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.

Notice that with reflexive verbs, the subject, the reflexive object, and the verb ending are all in agreement (because the subjects are doing the action to themselves). Some more examples:

Tú te despiertas.
You wake up.

Ella se levanta.
She gets up.

Nosotros nos sentamos.
We sit down.

Uds. se acuestan.
You go to bed.

Two things to be aware of before we get any further:

• Reflexive pronouns are not optional. This “extra” reflexive pronoun can be frustrating for students who are already busy enough trying to remember the verb endings and as a result it often gets ignored, but we can’t just ignore the things we find difficult.
• Reflexive pronouns do not replace the subject. Nos is not the same as nosotros. It’s not an abbreviation either.

So how do you know if a verb is reflexive or not? Well, the idea that reflexive verbs are used when the subject does the action to him/herself is a good starting place, but the truth is you really need to memorize which verbs are reflexive and which ones aren’t. You won’t be able to tell from context whether you need to add a reflexive pronoun or not. For some reflexive verbs it’s quite obvious why they are reflexive but other reflexive verbs may make no sense to you whatsoever.

Common Reflexive Verbs

Here’s a list of commonly used reflexive verbs:

reflexive verb:	meaning:	more literal translation:
acostarse	to go to bed	to put oneself to bed
afeitarse	to shave	to shave oneself
apurarse	to hurry up	to hurry oneself
bañarse	to take a bath	to bathe oneself
despertarse	to wake up	to wake oneself
ducharse	to take a shower	--
lavarse	to wash up	to wash oneself
levantarse	to get up	to raise oneself
peinarse	to comb one’s hair	--
ponerse	to put on	to put onto oneself
quitarse	to take off	to remove from oneself
reirse	to laugh	--
secarse	to dry off	to dry oneself
sentarse	to sit down	to seat oneself
sentirse	to feel	--
vestirse	to get dressed	to dress oneself

A few things to note from the list above:

• Many reflexive verbs have to do with daily routine: washing, combing, drying, etc. and many have to do with emotions.
• As mentioned before it’s not obvious why some of these verbs are reflexive; they just are. The sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be.
• Some of the verbs listed are inherently reflexive and can’t be conjugated any other way. Some also have non-reflexive forms that convey different meanings. Speaking of which…

Possessive Adjective Replacement

When using reflexive verbs we frequently omit possessive adjectives and use definite articles instead (this tends to happen with body parts and articles of clothing). The reflexive pronoun does the job of the possessive adjective:

Yo me seco el pelo.
I dry my hair.

Juana se lavó las manos.
Juana washed her hands.

Tú te pones el abrigo.
You put on your jacket.

Reflexive Pronoun Placement

Like other pronouns, reflexive pronouns are placed before a “normal” conjugated verb. But they can attached to present participles and infinitives if they’re available. Reflexive pronouns must be attached to affirmative commands. Some examples:

“normal” verb:	Él se viste. He gets dressed.
infinitive:	Él quiere vestirse. Él se quiere vestir. He wants to get dressed.
present participle:	Él está vistiéndose. Él se está vistiendo. He is getting dressed.
command:	¡Vístete! Get dressed!