Reflexive verb and reflexive pronoun"Se". Exercise to understanding.

Question

One of the most difficult parts of Spanish is the so-called reflexive verb

and the reflexive pronoun "se". Most lessons teach to mean -oneself,myself,

, herself ourselves,yourselves, themselves,etc, sometimes that makes sense.

With verbs like ",controlarse", to control oneself, "defenderse,to defend oneself

"dedicarse",to dedicate oneself, With those verbs and many others the meaning

is clear ,but confusing when you see verbs like ,"Irse", "Enfermarse",

Comunicarse, To go onself, to sick oneself*, *to control oneself

They don't make much sense in English but there is an easy way to understand

hem and give your Spanish a boost.

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Many Spanish reflexive verbs coincide with English verbs which start with Get,

For example ,

"Irse" to get going,"Levantarse" to get up, "Enojarse",

To get angry, Lets practice these and verbs like them in real conversation

**Say To get going - "Irse***

**Say, You have to get going- "Tiene que irse"***

Ask,Do you want to get going ?-¿"Quiere irse?"

Ask, *Do you want to get going now? - "¿Quiere irse ahora?"

Say,I want to get going*,- "Quiero irme, ***notice that "Se " changed to "Me"**

Say,I dont want to get going*,-"No quiero irme".

Ask, *Do you want to get going now?, -¿Quiere irse ahora?"

Reply,No I don't want to get going*,- "No,no quiero irme.

Say,Remember*,-"Recuerde" = A formal command

Say,Remember that you have to get going before 2 Oclock,-

"Recuerde que tiene que irse antes de las dos"

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Say,To get up*,-"Levantarse".

**Say ,You have to get up,-"Tiene que levantarse"***.

Say,Remember that you have to get up early-

"Recuerde que tiene que levantarse temprano".

Say ,*Remember that tomorrow you have to get up early,-

**"Recuerde que mañana tiene que levantarse temprano"***.

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More to follow in lesson ( 2).

Not bad, Jefe! - Daniela2041, Feb 24, 2016

Thank you deputy Dan I have missed you lover , how are you ? - ray76, Feb 24, 2016

Doing great! Busy, busy, busy, at school and at home. - Daniela2041, Feb 24, 2016

:) - ian-hill, Feb 24, 2016

Gracias señor Ray! - Wennix, Feb 24, 2016

I shall work on it. Gracias - siempre, Feb 24, 2016

De nada a todos. - ray76, Feb 24, 2016

Ray, irse: get going? I've never thought of it as get going??? - annierats, Feb 24, 2016

Enfermarse is better translated literally "to sicken" your self or make your self sick. But is usually translated by "to get sick." - Daniela2041, Feb 28, 2016

"Irse" also means "to go away" like "salir" - Daniela2041, Feb 28, 2016

Thanks Dani , that has shed a lot more light on it . - ray76, Feb 28, 2016

Answer 1

How about "enamorarse con" (or "de") to fall in love with. "Sara se enamaró con (de) Felipe hace tres años. Sara fell in love with Felipe three years ago.

"casarse con" Sara se casó con Felipe tres meses después. She got married to him three months later.

"divorciarse de" Ay, la pobre se divorció de él la semana pasada. Oh the poor thing got divorced from him last week.

"Acordarse de" No me acuerdo del nombre de mi profe de álgebra. I don't remember my Algebra prof's name.

And here are a few more. I just noticed that there are a few duplicates and the numbers in the columns are identical. But the list is still OK.

Translating some of these literally are really funny.

For example, "pintarse las uñas" To paint yourself the nails. (to paint your nails)

"Lavarse la cara" To wash yourself the face (to wash your face)

"Cepillarse los dientes" To brush yourself the teeth (To brush your teeth)

El español es muy divertido.

Edit:

The link to a great chart that I had failed, and I couldn't find it again. Here is a hyperlink to a BIG chart of reflexive verbs.

big list of reflexive verbs

That is fantastic , just what i was hoping for , you have saved me hours of work Dani, thank you so much. - ray76, Feb 28, 2016

I'll come back and try to make sentences with these. Too tired now! ¡Tengo que acostarme! - Jubilado, Feb 29, 2016

I cannot see an image - has the link failed or do I have a problem my end? - Mardle, Mar 9, 2016

Oh, Boy! The link failed. I can't see it either. - Daniela2041, Mar 10, 2016

I see it now! :) Thank you! - Findy, Mar 14, 2016

Answer 2

Thanks, Dani & Ray for the handy tips and the funny translations. I'll remember to brush myself the teeth later on (and hope not to burst out laughing and have toothpaste shoot out of my nose all over the mirror!).

Ah, I remember your comment, Jenny. My guess is that we just have to, repeat, repeat, repeat until it all falls into place. It's difficult trying to make sense of a language when it doesn't translate over exactly (most languages, probably). My problem is I'm a perfectionist, and get mad at myself for not saying/writing the sentences exactly perfect.

By the way, I just completed Level 4 on Fluencia (284 lessons completed so far)! My brain is pretty fried, but I'm happy that I got most of the words right on the Review. My silliest mistakes are word order and those A's that get thrown in here and there - I still can't figure those out. (¿Conoces a algunos famosos? - what does that "a" mean? Have you met to any celebrities? Does the "a" mean "with" (which would make sense)? Vamos a la playa - "we go to the beach" is easy enough to remember. Any tips on remembering when to pull those extra A's out of my pocket and toss them into sentences would be appreciated. Sorry for changing the subject.

¡Buena suerte, a todos!

Hi, Findy. To answer your question, the "a" doesn't mean anything, but it just has to be there. There is a long confusing grammatical reason I could give, but just use the "a" when a person's name or a person word, like hombre, mujer, profesor, etc, is - Daniela2041, Mar 11, 2016

the direct object of a verb. Go check out the Q&A page, Ray has a good article on the subject. - Daniela2041, Mar 11, 2016

Thanks, Daniela! I'll have a look at that. - Findy, Mar 14, 2016

Answer 3

The other day I tried to use disfrutar as a reflexive, ie disfrutarse meaning to enjoy oneself, but Pablo said it doesn't exist, so it's not always obvious which verbs are reflexive. Thanks for this thread, it's useful..

thanks Jenny, so what do we use whem we want to say ,"I enjoyed myself" ? I will look into that . - ray76, Feb 29, 2016

He is correct it is not , I will check on it for you Jenny - ray76, Feb 29, 2016

To say "enjoy yourself" we use "divertirse" or "pasarlo bien" or you can also use "Disfurta" así all by itself. That was one English idiom that I had a big laugh about it because it sounds sort of weird. - Daniela2041, Mar 1, 2016

"Así" is not part of the expression, I meant "like this" and slipped into Spanish by mistake. - Daniela2041, Mar 1, 2016

Answer 4

Thank you all so much!!!

You are very welcome , if you want to say thank you then you can by filling out your profile , it helps us to more easily help ypu. - ray76, Mar 9, 2016

Answer 5

Still checking it out Jenny.

You could have asked me. Hmmmmmm? - Daniela2041, Mar 1, 2016

I am asking you , I am always asking you , I get embarrassed that you are the only one that i have , so i just waited for you to see it . - ray76, Mar 1, 2016

(heart) - ray76, Mar 1, 2016

Vale, mi amor. you're forgiven. ♥ - Daniela2041, Mar 1, 2016

Well thats a releif , I wont have to put a contract out on you now. - ray76, Mar 2, 2016

Answer 6

I found one that is called coloquial in the dictionary: largarse - left

Me larqué sin decir palabra. I left without saying a word. I wonder where in the world it would be used.

I also noticed callarse is missing from Daniela's list, not that I would want to be rude but I would like to recognize it!

A great way to describe a multitude of newbies after their homework has been done for them . I am a cynic getting ? - ray76, Mar 1, 2016

Jubilado can you help with the query of "Jenny SK" ?Above. - ray76, Mar 1, 2016

I just took care of it. - Daniela2041, Mar 1, 2016

Re: "callarse" I could add that and about 20 more if you want. By the way "¡Lárgate! is a well known expression meaning "Get outta here!" - Daniela2041, Mar 1, 2016

Answer 7

We're beginning to see some questions on this matter so I'm bumping it up. ?

Answer 8

Bumping this up.

Thank you vdear Amber you aree so loveley and helpful. - ray76, Jan 5, 2017