Verbs con "se"
Hello everyone,
I am a beginner with spanish, but have some problems with the verbs that have an ''se'' at the end. In general they are called reflexive verbs, and I understand them, how do we do with the verbs like: sacarse, pararse, casarse or equivocarse. Is their any rule when it gets an ''se'' at the end or does it works as the same as the reflexive verbs. For example: If we say sacar"se" because we are doing on ourselfes the action why don't we say than comer''se'' if I am eating anything. Or must we simple look it up in the dictionary and learn every word what it means when it gets an "se" and when not.
Puedes ayudarme por favor
2 Answers
Hi and welcome to the SD forum!
There is a lesson on this under the "Learn Spanish Grammar" tab above (I've posted a bit of it below).
In some cases you must conjugate both parts of what is called a "reflexive" verb, e.g, casarse or equivocarse.
Me casé (I got married.)
¿Te casaste? (You got married?)
Me equivoqué (I was mistaken.)
Te equivocas (You're wrong.)
In other cases you'd use the infinitive for the first part but conjugate the "se" depending on the person you are talking about, e.g, levantarse or bañarse.
Voy a bañarme. (I'm going to bathe myself.)
¿Cúando vas a levantarte? (When are you going to get up?)
Vamos a bañarnos a las ocho (We will take a bath at 8.)
From the SD lesson....
Pronominal
Pronominal Verbs are often incorrectly called reflexive verbs, when reflexive verbs are actually one example of a pronominal verb, the other being reciprocal verbs. With reflexive verbs, the subject is acting upon himself, herself, or themselves (brushing hair, going to sleep, etc.). With reciprocal verbs, two subjects are performing the same action on each other (hugging, kissing, etc.) Pronominal verbs must be conjugated with reflexive pronouns. You can recognize pronominal verbs by the reflexive pronoun se attached to the infinitive: ducharse, ponerse, etc.
Reflexive Verbs
When the object matches the subject, or the subject performs an action on or to him- or herself.
Me veo (I see myself.)
Se escribe una nota. (He writes himself a note.)
Te cepillas los dientes. (You brush your teeth.)
Great explanation by Mariana.
In general, as you feared, in many cases, you're just going to have to learn them one by one. The most common ones are personal maintenance, such as brushing your teeth, or involving mutual activities between two people, such as Mariana's example of casarse, and they're be self explanatory and fairly obvious.
There are some that have a different connotation in the reflexive, such as comerse - to eat All of something, i.e. to eat something up. quedarse - to stay (which if you think about locating yourself somewhere, in the transitive sense of locate, as in to put somewhere, then even that makes sense.
Another very common one is irse. Literally, to go yourself, but it means, to leave. Me voy - I´m leaving. Se fue - she left.
Here is a little bit on ones that change meaning
There are also some reflexive verb plus noun combinations used where we'd use a single verb. Hacerse daño - make yourself some damage, literally, or idiomatically, to hurt oneself or yourself. In fact, you´ll see the reflexive pop up often where we´d use myself, yourself, ourselves, etc.
You' sound like you already have the basics down, so beyond that, I wouldn't fret too much. The common ones you quickly pick up on, and the less common, you'll usually be able to figure out by context,or, once having looked them up or otherwise learned them, they'll stick pretty easily, because the majority are pretty logical.
