Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs don’t exist in the English language but they do in others, including in Spanish. A reflexive verb is essentially an action which you do to yourself (when the speaker and the receiver are the same person) and includes many verbs to do with our daily routine and emotion. For example, in Spanish it is not sufficient to say “I´m going to shower”, you have to say that you are going to shower yourself or that you get yourself up in the morning. We need to include the words myself, yourself etc in the phrase or in other words we need to include a reflexive pronoun.

A reflexive verb is made up of 2 parts;
A normal verb (AR, ER or IR)
A reflexive pronoun (a word like me, her, you, myself)

Here are some common reflexive verbs:
Despertarse To wake up
Levantarse To get up
Ducharse To shower
Bañarse To bathe
Llamarse To call oneself
Sentirse To feel
Sentarse To sit down
Casarse To marry
Preocuparse To worry

Reflexive verbs are identified by the SE on the send of a normal verb, this tells us that the verb we are looking at is reflexive and we need to use it in 2 parts.

How is it formed?

It is formed by the changing of the verb in the normal method and the changing of the pronoun to the relevant person. Here’s an example using the reflexive verb levantarse – to get up.
LEVANTARSE

LEVANTAR SE
(Normal AR verb)      (Reflexive pronoun part)

LEVANTO                      ME (myself)
LEVANTAS                    TE (yourself)
LEVANTA                      SE (his/herself)
LEVANTAMOS            NOS (ourselves)
LEVANTÁIS                  OS (yourselves)
LEVANTAN                   SE (themselves)

ME LEVANTO              I get up
TE LEVANTAS             You get up
SE LEVANTA               He/she gets up
NOS LEVANTAMOS  We get up
OS LEVANTÁIS          You (plural) get up
SE LEVANTAN           They get up

Now try with the following examples:
Ducharse
Bañarse
Llamarse