28.10: Part 1: 9 THE VERB: REFLEXIVE VERBS (VERBES PRONOMINAUX)

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9 THE VERB: REFLEXIVE VERBS (VERBES PRONOMINAUX)

The term "reflexive verb" refers to a verb construction in which the action of the verb literally or figuratively "reflects back" to the subject. In French the construction is called pronominal because a reflexive pronoun is an essential part of the construction. There are some special characteristics of reflexive constructions that need not concern us in a first-year text, but we must recognize and learn to use the more common verbs: they occur frequently and are necessary for day-to-day communication.

The reflexive pronoun forms are: me, te, se for the singular, and nous, vous, se for the plural. They may function either as direct objects or indirect objects, depending on the particular sentence, but in either function they regularly precede the verb of which they are the object. Here are some examples:

Je m'appelle Claude Le Roux.	My name is Claude Le Roux. (Literally: "I call myself...")
Elle se lave.	She is washing. (washing herself: direct object)
Elle se lave les mains.	She is washing her hands. (here, se is the indirect object)
Nous ne nous levons pas à six heures.	We don't get up at six o'clock. (negative particles follow regular order.)
Ils se sont vus deux fois.	They saw each other twice. (reciprocal use of reflexive; direct object)
Elles se sont dit au revoir.	They said goodbye (to each other). (reciprocal use of reflexive; indirect object)

(As you see, the reflexive construction, in the passé composé, uses the verb être as the auxiliary. For further discussion, see Section 6.2.1.)

The following are some common reflexive verbs. As you see in the last two examples above, other verbs can be used in a reflexive construction, but the following are most commonly used reflexively.

s'en aller	to go away
s'amuser	to have a good time
s'appeler	to be called, to he named
s'arrêter	to stop
se coucher	to go to bed
se dépêcher	to hurry up
s'habiller	to get dressed
se laver	to wash, get washed
se lever	to get up
se mettre à (faire quelque chose)	to begin to (do something)
se moquer de	to make fun of
se plaindre	to complain
se rappeler (+ direct object)	to remember
se souvenir de	to remember

Be careful to note that, although reflexive verbs are listed regularly with the third person reflexive pronoun and the infinitive (se laver), that pronoun must change as necessary to indicate the same person-number as the subject, even when the reflexive verb is in its infinitive form:

Je vais me lever tôt demain.

I'm going to get up early tomorrow.

(The reflexive verb is in its infinitive form, in the futur proche construction; the reflexive pronoun is me (not se) to agree with its antecedent, je.)