Reflexive help

Question

Does anyone know of a good link to an online lesson with lots of practice with reflexive verbs/pronouns?

I understand how reflexives function (the subject receives the action) but for some reason, I cannot seem to fully grasp it! When I write practice sentences, I often miss when a verb is reflexive. It's like a verb can be reflexive and I really have a hard time seeing how that can be true. Some reflexive verbs are easier to understand than others. And those are usually the only ones included in lessons. But I need to learn how to recognize reflexiveness (I'm sure that's not a word!) in it's entirety.

Thanks so much!

Erin, it helped me enormously to stop thinking of verbs as "reflexive" and recognize them as pronominal....with different reasons for the pronominal form. The pronoun is, of course reflexive (I think that is what it is correctly called). - Janice, Aug 27, 2009

Answer 1

Let me give you another use of SE: Make transitive verbs intransitive.

For example -I aready explained this before, but I can't make searches in the forum, for some reason-, a verb like "quemar" is transitive, because you use it with an object (i.e. what you burn). However, if something gets burnt, and there is no explicit agent for this, then you can't say "La casa quemó", because any Spanish native would be expecting something more - they would be expecting to hear what did the house burn, actually! (I know it sounds strange).

So, the house just burnt, and you don't want an object (there is nothing for the house to burn). This verb is intransitive, and in Spanish requires a SE to indicate this: La casa se quemó.

More examples: Un barco hunde a otro usando misiles (transitivo). Un barco se hunde (intransitivo). // La lluvia moja la ropa (tr.). La ropa se moja (intr.).

Also with human actions: Juan enfada a su hermana. Su hermana se enfada.

This in English is accomplished by just don't using any object, or using the structure (e.g. got burnt).

Answer 2

Have you looked under the "reference" tab for Spanish grammar? If you go to the grammar link you'll find several articles about the use of se (it's not always reflexive). Also, there was a recent discussion about these pronouns. I'm sure some of the experts will respond shortly.

Se habla español is not reflexive (it's passive). There are many other examples. The verbs in these sentences look reflexive, but they're not. Best thing to do is immerse yourself in Spanish as much as possible. Read books, watch TV, listen to the radio, talk to your Spanish speaking neighbors (they're probably the best resource of all). The more you hear these phrases, the more you'll get a feel for this.

¡Buena suerte!

Calvo

Answer 3

This "se" is difficult for sure and you are right, Erin, the cases for using the reflexive pronoun with verbs such as levantarse are easy to understand and you probably do not need too much practice with those.

But looking for other uses, especially in combination with exercises, I happened upon this:

Unplanned "se"

Have a look! There are others at the same main site, too, including some exercises for what the author calls "verbos reflexivos" (the easy ones!!) Verbos reflexivos

I unfortunately did not find any exercises illustrating the use of the pronominal form to express what we would probably put into the passive voice in English (see Lazarus post about transitive/intransitive). Nor did I find any illustrating that Mark W explained as the dative use.

Answer 4

http://www.bowdoin.edu/~eyepes/newgr/ats

This might help. Better late than never!

That site should be of particular interest for Erin because it includes exercises to practice and also answers!! - Janice, Aug 27, 2009

Answer 5

I think I can add something to this discussion. It seems from you post that you don't understand how some verbs can be reflexive. Well, in some cases, the verb is used with 'se' and it is not actually classified as reflexive. An example of this would be a dative use, which reinforces the subjective value or effectiveness of something, e.g.
"me comí una hamburguesa" or "se tomó una cerveza"
These are both "usos dativos" and not reflexive. They are not necessary from a purely grammatical point of view, but they add a certain something to the meaning.

Hope that helps.

Mark

It helps me!! Thanks, I have read this before, this reinforces what I perhaps did not quite understand when hearing about it the first time. - Janice, Aug 27, 2009

Answer 6

The link Heidita gave you is a good one, and you'll find more such posts on this site if you search for "pronomial(s)," which is the term that linguists use for one of the uses of se, rather than reflexive. A true reflexive only applies when the subject performs the action of the verb on himself, as in "me levanto a las siete."

Answer 7

Erin said:

Thanks Calvo, I appreciate the response and help! I haven't checked the reference tab on this site but I will. I did go through the other forum conversations on the topic but they weren't any help either.

This is the best thread about this. Look at Lazarus's answer:

[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A240767]http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A240767[/url]

Answer 8

Thanks Calvo, I appreciate the response and help! I haven't checked the reference tab on this site but I will. I did go through the other forum conversations on the topic but they weren't any help either. I am in fact immersing myself as much as possible. I listen to music with lyrics in Spanish constantly, I watch Plaza Sesamo, futbol, and have a coworker who speaks spanish so I practice with her. I don't know why I'm having a hangup with reflexives. Some come very easy (all the typical ones for getting up and dressed in the morning etc.) but others I don't get. I'm teaching myself so I'll keep searching.

Answer 9

CalvoViejo said:

Have you looked under the "reference" tab for Spanish grammar? If you go to the grammar link you'll find several articles about the use of se (it's not always reflexive). >

Thank you for pointing this out, Calvo.