Reflexive verbs indicate that the action of a verb is reflected back on the person who is doing an action. Verbs such as ducharse, lavarse, secarse, etc. are reflexive.
Reflexive infinitive verbs are written with -se after infinitives. The -se usually moves to the front of the verb when it’s conjugated and the -se changes depending on who is being affected by the action.
The reflexive pronouns are:
me
te
se
nos
se
How to use reflexive verbs
Normal verbs are simply conjugated, as in Yo hablo.
If you want to make the verb reflexive, you would add a reflexive pronoun in front of the verb and conjugate the verb.
Yo ME hablo.
The ME means MYSELF, except that we put me in front of the verb or verb phrase), not after the verb like we do in English (I talk to myself).
If I want to say that you talk to YOURSELF, I would say:
Tú TE hablas.
To say that he talks to HIMSELF, that she talks to HERSELF, or that “you, sir, talk to YOURSELF” or “YOU ma’am talk to YOURSELF” I would say:
Él SE habla. / Ella SE habla. / Ud. SE habla (Señor) / Ud. SE habla (Señora)
Notice that HIMSELF, HERSELF, and YOURSELF are just one word in Spanish; SE. The problem is that if you don’t use the subject in your sentence you may not know what Se habla means. Does it mean he/she or someone you call Ud. is talking to himself of herself? To clarify, we sometimes have to all the pronoun to the sentence such as Ella se habla.
To say that we talk to OURSELVES I would say:
Nosotros NOS hablamos.
To you they talk to THEMSELVES (a group of guys or mixed genders, or just girls or you gentelmen or you ladies, I would say:
Ellos/Ellas/Uds. SE hablan
Once again, we use just one word, SE, to refer to all three subject pronouns (Uds, ellos, and ellas)
Reflexive pronouns
These are the reflexive pronouns that must be used to make a verb reflexive. You need to do 2 things.
- Conjugate the verb
- Put the reflexive pronoun in front of the conjugated verb or verb phrase.
| yo | me | nostros | nos |
| tú | te | vosotros | os |
| Ud. él ella |
se | Uds. ellos ells |
se |
For example:
Yo lavo el coche.
This means you wash the car, not yourself. To say that you wash yourself, you drop coche and add the reflexive pronoun for yo which is me in front of the verb.
Yo me lavo.
Notice that the verb lavar is conjugated, and that I added me.
You can continue to make lavar reflexive for tú, Ud., él, ella, nosotros/as, Uds. ellos or ellas by first, conjugating the verb, and then adding the other reflexive pronouns to the front of the verb or verb phrase.
Tú te lavas.
Ud. se lava.
Él se lava.
Ella se lava.
Nosotros nos lavamos.
Uds. se lavan.
Ellos se lavan.
Ellas se lavan.
*Exceptions to putting the reflexive pronoun in front of the verb or verb phrase
There are two exceptions where you can put the reflexive pronoun directly attached to the back of the verb.
First exception is when you use an infinitive in verb phrases like tengo que + INF, poder que + INF, querer + INF, deber + INF, etc.
There are a number of verb phrases that require an infinitive.
| me gusta/me gustan + INF me encanta/me encantan + INF me gustaría + INF [poder] (o->ue stem-Δing) + INF deber + INF |
preferir (e->ie stem-Δing) + INF querer (e->ie stem-Δing) + INF) pensar (e->i stem-Δing) + INF necesitar tener que(e->ie stem-Δing) + INF ir a + INF |
Tengo que lavarme la cara. (notice that me is directly attached to the verb)
Me tengo que lavar la cara.
As you can see you can attach the reflexive pronoun me to the end of lavar, or you can put me in front of the verb phrase tengo que lavar.
Puedo vestirme.
Me puedo vestir.
You can add the me at the end of the verb vestir or in front of the verb phrase puedo vestir.
Quiero bañarme.
Me quiero bañar.
You can add the me at the end of the verb bañar or in front of the verb phrase quiero bañar.
Debo vestirme bien.
Me debo vestir bien.
You can add the me at the end of the verb vestir or in front of the verb phrase debo vestir.
The second exception is when you use a verb that end in -ando or -iendo (present [participles)
For example:
Estoy lavándome la cara. (notice that me is directly attached to the verb)
Me estoy lavando la cara.
As you can see, you can attach the reflexive pronoun me to the end of lavando, or you can put me in front of the verb phrase estoy lavando.
Accent marks are required when you add a reflexive pronoun to a verb that ends in -ando or iendo!
Notice the accent mark on lavándome. Because lavando has the stress on van, it has to keep the stress on van when you add -ando. This causes the strees the stress to fall on the third syllable from the end of the word, and when that happens, we always accent the word. Examples of this are: sábado, miércoles, and exámenes.
You also add accents to -er and ir verbs when you put the reflexive pronoun on the end of -ando and -iendo verbs.
Nos estamos poniendo desodorante.
Estamos poniéndonos desodorante.
¿Te estás vistiendo?
Estás vistiéndote.
¿Vas a vestirte?
¿Te vas a vestir?
Vistiéndote has an accent because the stress is on the third syllable from the end. Vestirte does not because the stress in on the second syllable from the end.
Other explanations
Explanation from Study Spanish
Video explanation of reflexive verbs
A song explaining reflexive verbs (probably the best video I’ve found yet explaining reflexive verbs!)
Practice reflexive verbs
Quia online practice worksheet
Practice with a song and a worksheet
Reflective verb practice worksheet