Reflexive verbs

Me levanto a las siete

There is a special group of Spanish verbs that are used everywhere, but we haven’t talked about them yet. These verbs are called reflexive verbs.

Reflexive verbs express an action that is directed back to the object itself, which produces the action.

Por la mañana me ducho – In the morning I wash myself in the shower

Manuel se hace un café – Manuel makes himself a coffee

Reflexive verbs exist in English, too. However, they are not that widespread as in Spanish.

To explain what reflexive verbs are, let’s start with some English analogy.

English reflexive verbs are followed by the reflexive pronoun oneself. The forms of this pronoun can be different: myself, herself, itself, themselves, etc. When you use the reflexive pronoun, you explicitly indicate, that an action is directed towards the same object.

My dad buys himself a car

This means that he does it for himself, not for somebody else.

In Spanish the same sentence will sound like this:

Mi papá se compra un coche

The Spanish se pronoun is exactly the same as the English himself. If you say Mi papá compra un coche, forgetting about se, it will mean that he buys a car to somebody else.

The infinitive of this verb is comprarse (to buy oneself).

Compare these two verbs. The first one is non-reflexive (simple), the second one is reflexive.

comprar – to buy

comprarse – to buy oneself

As you can see, Spanish infinitives are written with the reflexive pronoun -se at the end.

ducharse – to wash oneself in a shower

hacerse – to make oneself something

prepararse – to prepare oneself (for something)

However, to say an infinitive is one thing, and to use its different personal forms within a sentence is another thing.

Forms

Let’s have a look at how Spanish reflexive verbs are conjugated.

comprarse

yo – me compro

tú – te compras

él, ella, usted – se compra

nosotros – nos compramos

vosotros – os compráis

ellos, ellas, ustedes – se compran

Yo me compro una casa – I buy myself a house. I buy a house for myself

When you use the verb comprarse in a sentence, you should cut the pronoun -se off from the end of the infinitive and put it right before it. Then you have to change se to its right personal form, which is different in each person.

This is what the personal forms of the reflexive pronoun -se look like:

yo – me

tú – te

él, ella, usted – se

nosotros – nos

vosotros – os

ellos, ellas, ustedes – se

As for the verb itself, its ending also has to be changed, just like in a simple verb: compro, compras, compra, etc.

Try it yourself:

ducharse

yo – …

tú – …

él, ella, usted – …

nosotros – …

vosotros – …

ellos, ellas, ustedes – …

prepararse

yo – …

tú – …

él, ella, usted – …

nosotros – …

vosotros – …

ellos, ellas, ustedes – …

Te duchas por la mañana o por la noche? – Do you take shower in the morning or in the evening?

Los estudiantes se preparan para el examen – The students prepare themselves for the exam

The students in this example get themselves ready for the exam. They don’t get something else ready for the exam.

The reflexive pronoun -se can be added to almost any simple Spanish verb, converting it into a reflexive one.

levantar – to raise something up

levantarse – to rise (oneself) up, to get up

mirar – to look at something

mirarse – to look at oneself

¿A qué hora te levantas? – What time do you get up?

Me levanto a las seis – I get up at six

But: