Am I right about reflexive verbs?

Question

I was told if i wanted to tell some one that they look good i would say "te ves muy bien" but wouldn't that me that mean "to you, you look good" with the reflexive verb. Wouldn't the correct way to say "to me, you look good" be "me ves muy bien." Anybody can help me understand reflexive verbs i would really appreciate it.

Good question! - gringojrf, Jan 11, 2012

Answer 1

You see, when you start learning a foreign language, you should try to start thinking in that language. Otherwise you won't be able to speak it fluently.

I understand reflexive verbs this way :

Te ves= you look

It means that "she" did something to "herself" to look good.

Answer 2

A lot of verbs that aren't really reflexive in Spanish are thrown together with the actually true reflexive verbs. "Verse" appears to me to be one of those verbs. It's actually pronominal. You may like this Wikipedia article on reflexive verbs.

RAE's dictionary isn't working for me at the moment, so I used WordReference's instead. One definition that they have for "ver" (and it's a pronominal definition) is :

Hallarse en algún estado o situación

Or "to find oneself in a specific state or situation." So, "te ves muy bien hoy" is more like you're saying "you're finding yourself in a state of being beautiful/well," but that's really wordy and doesn't exactly make sense in English. Point being that, as in English (or any language, for that matter), many words have multiple meanings, and some expressions really only make sense as they are in their own language. For example, why does "look up" mean to perform a search for some piece of information or for the purposes of research? Taken literally, you move your vision to look above where you're currently looking, but that's not its definition (in this example)

Something that I have noticed with Spanish (which is mentioned in the Wikipedia article), however (and maybe it'll help), is that transitive verbs are sometimes made intransitive by becoming pronominal, rather than just being used without an object. This is one such case. It could also be seen classed as an "inherent" reflexive verb (from the Wiki article), which may make more sense, but that's not really an important talking point for this particular question.

Good answer, Freeze. - territurtle, Jan 11, 2012

We have some previous threads calling that "detransitizing se". - 0074b507, Jan 11, 2012

Thank you, territurtle. I like that term, Qfreed, and will probably use it now. :-) - freeze10108, Jan 11, 2012

Answer 3

I would say "A mi tú pareces muy bien"

But that does not really address your question. Soo.....

I think that the reflexive can also be translated as you yourself. so... To me you yourself look very good. Me te ves muy bien.

Since you have "a mí" before the verb, you also need to have "me" before the verb. "A mí, me pareces..." The "tú" is also not really necessary unless you're really stressing YOU look good (as opposed the person next to you, etc.). - freeze10108, Jan 11, 2012

Thx. - gringojrf, Jan 11, 2012

There is no comma after the A mí in Spanish, (probably would be in English). - 0074b507, Jan 11, 2012

I was wondering about that; it looked a little weird with the comma. - freeze10108, Jan 11, 2012

Thx. I verbally pause there so I put a comma. This is a problem area for me as there are very few commas in spanish. - gringojrf, Jan 12, 2012

Your use of "you yourself" is not reflexive the "yourself" is simply intensive. - samdie, Jan 12, 2012

Answer 4

Te ves bien = You look good (your appearance/semblance is good)

To me, you look good = para mí, te ves bien.

Answer 5

Hi:

You want to say: They look good. It will be (Ellos/Ellas) me parecen bien.

If you say: Te veo bien, this could mean I see you well (I don't need glasses); saying Me pareces bien, you tranfer the idea that You look good (healthy or happy or well...).

If you say: Luces bien (in this traje), then you are saying: this dress (or garnment) suits you well. You're nice in this (whatever you're wearing)

Look up in a dictionary: ver, parecer and lucir. One of these will translate you idea.

Answer 6

te ves = you see yourself. Check out Heidita's reference article on reflexive verbs which I came across while still striving to understand pronominal verbs.

I think quedar can be used to indicate to look good.

"you see yourself" is an awful translation. - samdie, Jan 12, 2012

Well that's what the article by the boss says! - caza, Jan 13, 2012