QuixoteSpanish

Spanish grammar · A1 to A2 · Updated

Spanish reflexive verbs and the four uses of se

Se is doing four different jobs and they are worth separating. Truly reflexive: he washes himself. A change of state: se durmió, he fell asleep. Accidental: se me cayó, it fell and I am not taking the blame. Impersonal: se dice, people say. One word, four grammars.

The short answer

A reflexive verb turns the action back on the person doing it: lavo el coche is I wash the car, me lavo is I wash myself. The pronoun changes with the person, me, te, se, nos, os, se, and goes in front of the verb. Many Spanish verbs simply come in a pair, and the se version means something slightly different.

How to remember it

The action comes back to the doer

Truly reflexiveyou do it to yourselfMe lavo
Reciprocaltwo people do it to each otherSe escriben
A change of stategetting angry, getting up, falling asleepMe enfado
A pair with a twistir is to go, irse is to leaveMe voy
No sethe same verb with an object needs no pronounLavo el coche

The forms

Levantarse in the present

pronounverb
yomelevanto
tútelevantas
él, ella, ustedselevanta
nosotrosnoslevantamos
vosotrososlevantáis
ellos, ustedesselevantan

20 sentences that show the difference

Everyday Spanish, the kind you would actually say. The label under each one says which part of the rule it shows.

Where English gets in the way

English almost never marks this. It says I get up, I wash, I get dressed, and myself shows up only when you want to insist on it. In Spanish the pronoun is not decoration: it is part of the verb, and without it the sentence means something else. Lavo el caballo = I wash the horse. Me lavo = I wash. Same verb, one small word apart.

The mistake to avoid

English speakers say ✗ Yo llamo Ana (that means "I phone Ana") or ✗ Me llamo es Ana (two verbs, one too many). The right form is ✓ Me llamo Ana. And ✗ Levanto a las siete means "I lift something at seven": the right form is ✓ Me levanto a las siete.

The cases that break the rule

Me lavo las manos

Spanish says the hands, not my hands. The pronoun has already said whose they are, so mi manos sounds as odd as "I wash my the hands" would in English.

Ir and irse

Ir is to go somewhere and needs a destination. Irse is to leave, and needs nothing. Me voy on its own is a complete sentence and one of the most useful in the language.

Dormir and dormirse

Dormir is the stretch of sleeping, dormirse is the moment of dropping off. The same split runs through ir and irse, comer and comerse, llevar and llevarse.

Se me cayó

Two pronouns and no blame. Spanish moves the accident away from you: literally "it fell itself on me". Lo tiré would say you threw it, which is a different admission.

Nos vemos

A reciprocal used as a goodbye. It does not mean "we see ourselves" but "we will see each other", and it is what most people say instead of adiós.

Levántate

The pronoun goes on the end of a positive order and an accent appears to hold the stress where it was. The negative puts it back in front, with no accent: no te levantes.

Spanish reflexive verb exercises

8 sentences to fill in. Type your answer and check it, or read them straight through with the answers showing. Accents count here, the way they count in the language.

  1. Todos los días ___ levanto a las siete.

    Every day I get up at seven.

    me · Me for yo. The pronoun changes with the person, exactly like the ending does.

  2. Mi hermana ___ llama Elena.

    My sister is called Elena.

    se · Se for the third person. Llamarse is literally to call oneself.

  3. ___ lavamos las manos antes de comer.

    We wash our hands before eating.

    Nos · Nos for nosotros. And notice las manos, not nuestras manos: the pronoun already says whose.

  4. Ya es tarde, ___ voy.

    It is late, I am off.

    me · Irse is to leave, and it needs no destination. Voy on its own would be waiting for one.

  5. Los dos hermanos ___ escriben cada semana.

    The two brothers write to each other every week.

    se · Reciprocal se: not to themselves but to each other.

  6. Anoche ___ durmió en el sofá.

    Last night he fell asleep on the sofa.

    se · Dormirse is the moment of dropping off. Durmió would be the eight hours that followed.

  7. Voy a acostar___ pronto.

    I am going to go to bed early.

    me · On the end of the infinitive. Me voy a acostar is equally correct.

  8. No ___ preocupes, no pasa nada.

    Do not worry, it is nothing.

    te · A negative order puts the pronoun back in front. Preocúpate would be the positive one.

More exercises, from Don Quixote

8 more, these ones straight out of the course: the inn, the windmills, Rocinante and the road. Same rule, older Spanish.

  1. Don Quijote ___ levanta al amanecer.

    Don Quixote gets up at daybreak.

    se · The plain reflexive: he raises himself. Levanta on its own would mean he lifts something else.

  2. Yo ___ llamo Alonso Quijano.

    My name is Alonso Quijano.

    me · Word for word, I call myself. The pronoun changes with the person: me, te, se, nos, os, se.

  3. Sancho y su amo ___ miran sin decir nada.

    Sancho and his master look at each other without saying anything.

    se · The reciprocal se: not each one at himself, but one at the other. Only plurals can do this.

  4. Aquí ___ vende vino.

    Wine is sold here.

    se · The passive se: nobody says who sells it. This is how Spanish writes most signs and notices.

  5. ___ dice que la ínsula no existe.

    They say the island does not exist.

    Se · The impersonal se, for the English they or people. There is no subject at all, and the verb stays singular.

  6. Nosotros ___ acostamos tarde.

    We go to bed late.

    nos · Nos for nosotros. Acostar without the pronoun means to put somebody else to bed.

  7. ¿Cómo ___ llamas?

    What is your name?

    te · Te for tú. The question is literally how do you call yourself.

  8. Don Quijote ___ comió toda la olla.

    Don Quixote ate the whole stew.

    se · This se adds nothing to the meaning and a lot to the tone: the whole thing, down to the last spoon.

Common questions

What are the four uses of se?

Reflexive, where the action comes back on the subject: se lava. A change of state: se durmió. Accidental, where the blame slides off: se me cayó. And impersonal or passive: se dice, se venden casas.

What changes when a verb takes se?

Often the meaning. Ir is to go and irse is to leave. Dormir is to sleep and dormirse is to fall asleep. Acordar is to agree and acordarse is to remember. Treat each pair as two separate verbs.

Where does the pronoun go?

In front of the conjugated verb: me levanto. On the end of an infinitive, a gerund or a positive command: levantarse, levantándose, levántate. With two verbs together either position is correct.

What is the difference between ir and irse?

Ir is to go somewhere and wants a destination: voy al mercado. Irse is to leave, and the point is the place you are abandoning: me voy. The se adds departure, not direction, and that is the pattern behind many of these pairs.

Why do Spaniards say me comí toda la pizza?

Because that se says the whole thing was finished off. Comí pizza is neutral, me comí la pizza is I polished off the lot. It works the same with beberse, leerse, aprenderse and saberse, and it always needs a definite quantity.

How do I say each other in Spanish?

With the same se, used reciprocally: se miraron, they looked at each other. If it could be misread as themselves, Spanish adds el uno al otro or mutuamente to settle it.

Is se me olvidó correct?

Yes, and it is what most people actually say. That construction hands the blame to the thing rather than the person: se me olvidó, it slipped my mind. It works with caer, romper, perder and acabar, and the verb agrees with what was lost or broken: se me rompieron las gafas.

Which verbs are always reflexive?

Some exist only with se and there is no version without it: arrepentirse, quejarse, atreverse, darse cuenta, portarse. They are not reflexive in meaning, the pronoun is simply part of the verb, so learn them with the se attached.

The things to remember

The same rule in Don Quixote

Real lines from the course, not invented examples. Each one is the sentence the lesson uses to introduce the point.

The book this comes from

Cover of Don Quixote in Easy Spanish.

Don Quixote in Easy Spanish: the whole novel retold in Spanish you can actually read, in 58 short episodes, with the hard words glossed in the margin. It is where every Don Quixote sentence on this page comes from.

In EPUB and PDF, with a second novel in the same Spanish. See the books.

Where the course teaches this

3 lessons build it up, each one inside a chapter of the story rather than in the abstract. Free to read, with the vocabulary, the audio and the exercises.

Next to this one

The points that sit closest to this one, and that a student usually meets around the same time.