what is a reflexive verbs
what is reflexive verbs mean
3 Answers
It is a term used for English grammar, and unfortunately is also used to talk about Spanish grammar by English speakers. Believe me: it makes no sense. There is no such thing as a reflexive verb. Verbs can be used with others, like "I see him", and often to yourself, as in "I see myself". The only difference is the reflexive pronoun -the verb remains the same. People call this a reflexive verb, as if the verb was different. I think it is misleading.
Now, in Spanish there are literally thousands of verbs that often go with a reflexive pronoun, but unlike in English, these pronouns serve functions that do not translate as reflexive in English (because they are no reflexive). A much better term is "pronominal verbs". It is a complex topic, though.
Writing for “espanol-ingles.com.mx” the writer Neil Coffey has this to say about pronominal verbs of which he calls reflexives a subset:
Pronominal verbs, often (misleadingly) called reflexive verbs, are verbs in which a "pronoun" clitic is inserted that agrees with the subject. The term reflexive is often used to cover all these verbs, because a helpful notion for understanding them is that "the object of the verb is the same thing/person as the subject". Strictly speaking, reflexive verbs can be seen as a subset of pronominal verbs.
The infinitive of pronominal verbs has the clitic “se” added to the end: lavarse, bañarse, esconderse, hartarse etc.
You can read Neil Coffey’s one page article here ----> Pronominal Verbs When you read through his article, you will see that not all pronominal verbs are also reflexive verbs. It is fairer to say that all (so-called) reflexives are pronominal
please read an article on reflexive verbs here
