Reflexive in the subjunctive
I have a question about using reflexive verbs in the subjunctive. If I wish to say, "I need to put myself on a diet".. would I say, "Necessito me ponga una dieta"? or "Necessito me poner una dieta"? I remember a rule that says "you can have only one conjugated verb per clause", so it seems like 'necessito me ponga" has two conjugated verbs, unless this subjunctive trigger (necessito) is itself a clause, and the "ponerse... algo" is a dependent clause?
I'm kind of lost here. Input appreciated.
5 Answers
Tengo que ponerme a dieta// necestito ponerme a dieta .
There is no change of subject after the ' que' hence the verb stays in the infinitive, you're still talking about yourself.
When using two verbs together like "tengo que ponerme a dieta" the word "me" can appear only in one of two places. You can attach it to the infinitive as in "ponerme" or you can place it before the first verb as in: "Me tengo que poner a dieta." This works in all the tenses whether indicative mood or subjunctive mood. If I could put up a picture, I would show you a chart.
Never, never, will you see some thing like "me poner" or "me levantar" but you CAN say Me pongo (el vestido) o me levanto. When the verb has a personal ending, then you can do it.
I don't think you understand the meaning of "reflexive" in reference to a verb. I'm going to describe to you what you can do to see a verb conjugated.
First go to Menu then select Home
You will see a white box with a blinking cursor before the words in gray "Enter Spanish or English text..."
Type in the word hablar, click on Translate. A window with hablar and its meaning in English will come up. Under that the word Dictionary is underlined. Go to the next word to the right "Conjugation" and click on that.
You will now see the verb hablar in all its conjugated forms with the names of the tenses, such as Present, Preterite, Imperfect. As you scroll down you will see that tenses are grouped under the Moods: Indicative and Subjunctive and Imperative and then are given in the Perfect forms which means that there is the verb haber used in its various tenses with the Past Participle of hablar.
You will not find the word "reflexive" in this chart because it doesn't refer to forms of the verb but rather to "how" the verb is understood.
Reflexive verbs use a reflexive pronoun in their conjugations. You can see an example of this by going back to the Home window and repeating the steps above by typing in the word lavarse (which is the infinitive form a reflexive verb).
I gave you these two verbs to work with because they have no irregularities in their conjugations.
Finally the word "infinitive" refers to the unconjugated form of the verb that always ends in "R" and is the form you find in a dictionary.
I hope this helped. Please fill out your profile with you levels of English and Spanish and you gender to help us help you better in the future.
I'm in my second year of college Spanish, but I have only seen reflexive verbs used when they are conjugated along with the pronoun eg: levantarse as me levanto, te levantas, nos levantamos... etc... I did not know you could say "me levantar" or "te levantar". I don't uderstand what that means literally. If "me levanto" means in English "I get myself up".. what does "me levantar" mean? "I to get up"? or in my original example. The question was me ponga.... (I put myself)... on a diet... but literally, word for word.. "me poner" would mean, "I to put myself"... on a diet...
I am told that the correct answer is "me poner", but I am just not grasping how this works...
Thanks for the feedback.
ok... your link to the funny didn't work...
I guess I missed the part about using an infinitive as a reflexive. :-( I thought you had to conjugate a verb for it to be reflexive. Apparently, even in the infinitive, a verb can be reflexive....
