Verbos Reflexivos.
Hi guys, I´m still confused about reflexive verbs. The verb quejarse is reflexive yes? The action is reflected back onto the doer of the action, I´ve got that bit. So in the following sentence "Nuestros alumnos nunca se quejan" the students are not going to complain to themselves about something, so why does this verb need to be reflexive? Why do we need the "se"? If I complain to someone....me quejo al hombre...I hope that´s right.....why the "me"? Am I complaining myself to the man.........?? Many thanks in advance. Paul.
2 Answers
"Nuestros alumnos nunca se quejan" = Our students never complain (themselves)
Me quejo con el hombre = I complain (myself) to/with the man
Unfortunately i do not know my own grammar and much less English grammar, but I hope what I wrote for you will make sense.
Do you know a lot of English grammar?
You are welcome, although I am not sure what you mean with "I am not bad with grammar."
You see, some people know grammar where they can practically follow everything a grammarian will say.
Then there are those who went to college and by doing their homework they got good at writing, but don't remember rules or anything, just that they know how to write well. Ultimately, there are those who write, like me, that are fairly sure they will be understood, but don't know grammar.
If you are, say, a grammarian, let me tell you that you don't need to learn grammar to learn English or Spanish.
Would you like to talk like young lass, 10 or 12 years old would?
I bet you would.
Do you think such a youngster would know any grammar? I'd say no. However, he speaks the language fairly well and is very fluent. At that age is when grammar start to be taught in schools, really.
So, try to learn the language first and then try grammar. 
I believe that technically, quejarse is not reflexive but pronominal. Thus, when you ask "the students are not going to complain to themselves about something, so why does this verb need to be reflexive?" the answer is, it does not need to be reflexive, and it is not reflexive. The answer to why we need the "se" is... because that's how the verb quejarse works.
Here are some links describing pronominal verbs and how they differ from reflexive verbs. Neither of these descriptions is super useful, in my opinion, but they're better than nothing.
The key, I think, is to stop thinking of all verbs whose infinitives end in se as "reflecting back on the subject." That is a too-simple way of looking at pronominals.
