Reflexive Constructions
Reflexive constructions are used when you are
doing something to, at, or for yourself. We say in English
"I asked myself..." or "I hurt myself..." Myself is a way
of looking back (reflecting) upon what "I" am doing or experiencing.
In Spanish, we use a Reflexive Pronoun when the subject and the direct
object are one and the same.
For example, we learned how to say:
| Juan mira a María. |
Juan looks at María. |
| Juan la mira. |
Juan looks at her. |
In the second sentence, we replaced María's
name with a direct object pronoun la.
But what if Juan looks in a mirror?
In English we say, "Juan looks at himself." How do we say it in Spanish?
-
Is it "Juan lo mira"?
No, because that means "Juan looks at him or at it."
To be able to
say "Juan looks at himself", we need to use the Reflexive Pronoun.
The Reflexive Pronouns
are:
| Yo |
Me |
Nosotros |
Nos |
| Tú |
Te |
Vosotros |
Os |
| Él, ella |
Se |
Ellos, ellas |
se |
| Usted |
Se |
Ustedes |
se |
So, since the reflexive pronoun for
the third person singular form (él, ella, usted) is se,
we write:
| Juan se mira |
Juan looks at himself |
-
Like the direct and indirect object pronouns,
Reflexive
pronouns come directly before the conjugated verb or attach to an infinitive,
present participle or affirmative command:
-
For example
Vestirse (to get dressed)
| Juan se viste |
Juan gets dressed |
Juan está vistiéndose
[-or-]
Juan se está vistiendo |
Juan is getting dressed |
| Juan va a vestirse |
Juan is going to get dressed |
| Juan Muñoz, por favor, ¡vístase! |
Juan Muñoz, please, get dressed! |
Verbs mean different thing when they are
used reflexively and non-reflexively. For example, we learned
how to say "I'm called..." using the expression Me llamo...
This is the Reflexive form of Llamar "to Call".
| Me llamo Débora (reflexive) |
My name is Deborah (literally, "I call myself
Deborah") |
| Yo llamo a mis amigas (not reflexive) |
I call my friends |
| Se llama Juan (reflexive) |
He calls himself Juan |
| Juan llama a la policía (not
reflexive) |
Juan calls the police |
| Me baño (reflexive) |
I take a bath |
| Baño el perro (not reflexive) |
I bathe the dog |
-
When verbs are Reflexive, or can
be made Reflexive, we attach se to the infinitve. This
way you know that you need to or can use the pronouns.
Copyright ©
2000 Deborah R. Lemon.
All rights reserved.