The concept of reflexive verbs in Spanish can be difficult for many beginners to understand. But, believe it or not, reflexive verbs really aren’t too difficult to get your head around.
Reflexive verbs are a key part of the Spanish language and you’ll need to understand them when learning Spanish beyond beginner level.
By the end of this guide, you’ll know what a reflexive verb is, what the most common ones are in Spanish and how to use them in the present tense.
Oh, by the way, that’s me! My name is James, I’m a Spanish tutor and the author of most of the language material on this site.
The book I’m holding in the image above, Barron’s 501 Spanish Verbs, is the book I used to learn over 500 regular, irregular and reflexive verbs in multiple tenses. I highly recommend it! You can get your copy below 🙂
The goal of this post is to answer and provide clarity to the following questions.
⭐ 1. What are reflexive verbs in Spanish?
⭐ 2. What is a reflexive pronoun?
⭐ 3. Where do I place reflexive pronouns?
⭐ 4. What are the most common Spanish reflexive verbs?
What is a reflexive verb?
A reflexive verb in the Spanish language, put simply, is a verb whose direct object is the same as its subject. In other words, a person is performing an action on oneself. Whether you’re using the present tense, the preterite tense, or any other tense, this rule will always stay the same.
Some examples of reflexive verbs in Spanish, which are present amongst AR, ER and IR verb groups, are as follows:
lavarse, ducharse, despertarse, vestirse, levantarse …
Notice anything similar about them? They all have se attached to the end. In Spanish, if a verb has se at the end then it is reflexive.
Reflexive verbs are less common in English, which is what makes understanding them a little difficult sometimes for English speakers.
In English, we use the pronouns ‘myself’ ‘yourself’ ‘himself’ etc. In Spanish, conjugating a reflexive verb works a little differently.
It gets easier. First thing’s first, remember this. The subject of a sentence is the protagonist of the sentence – whether it’s a person, a place or thing. The subject is doing the action. It refers to the same person.
The object is the person, place or thing that receives the action performed by the subject.
The following examples should make things a little clearer.
He washes the dishes
subject: He
verb: washes
object: the dishes
In Spanish, you can translate this sentence the same way:
Él lava los platos.
subject: él
verb: lava
object: los platos
So, where is the Spanish reflexive verb? Take a look at this next example:
He washes himself.
subject: he
verb: washes
object: he (himself: same as the subject)
⭐ HE is both the object AND the subject of the sentence.
Examples of reflexive verbs in Spanish
As established a little earlier on, reflexive verbs in English are demonstrated with pronouns like myself, himself, ourselves etc.
In Spanish, this pronoun is already part of the verb. Just look at the ‘se’ in these reflexive verbs in Spanish below:
lavarse, levantarse, mirarse…
The literal translation of these verbs is:
to wash oneself, to get (oneself) up, to look at oneself…
In order to conjugate reflexive verbs in Spanish, we need to remove the ‘se’ from the end of the infinitive form and move it to the front of the verb.
Still sound complicated? Let’s look at these sentences, using the verbs we’ve just looked at above.
Ella se lava = She washes herself
subject: ella
verb: lava
object: ella (se: part of the reflexive verb lavarse)
Here, se shows that she is doing the action to herself.
Sometimes, even in English, the object is not always evident. For example:
I get up.
subject: I
verb: get up
object: I (myself)
In English, we do not need to say ‘myself’ in this context. We already know who is doing the action, since we say ‘I’.
In Spanish, however, reflexive verbs make it necessary to demonstrate who is carrying out the action.
Context would be lost completely if you used the Spanish verb conjugation ‘levanto’ and not ‘me levanto.’
Yo me miro.
subject: yo
verb: miro
object: yo (me: part of the reflexive mirarse)
Remember, the reflexive pronoun should be included in the verb itself.
What is a reflexive pronoun?
A reflexive pronoun refers to myself, yourself, himself, ourselves, themselves etc.
Reflexive pronouns, such as ‘myself’ and ‘yourself’, are used with reflexive verbs when the subject is performing an action to itself.
For example:
me lavo (I wash myself)
nos despertamos (we get up)
What are the reflexive pronouns in Spanish?
Below you will see the short list of Spanish reflexive pronouns:
me
te
se
nos
os
se
How to conjugate Spanish reflexive verbs using reflexive pronouns
So, now we know what a reflexive verb is and what the corresponding pronouns are, let’s take a look at how to conjugate reflexive verbs.
| Subject | Reflexive Pronoun | Verb (conjugated) | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | me | llamo | I am called |
| tú | te | afeitas | you shave |
| él / ella / usted | se | sienta | he/she/you sit/s down |
| nosotros / nosotras | nos | despertamos | we wake up |
| vosotros / vosotras | os | graduáis | you (pl) graduate |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | se | acostumbran | they/you (pl) get used to |
This may seem tricky if you have previously learned Portuguese, but it is important to remember that in Spanish the pronoun must always come before the verb, once it is conjugated.
In order to remember this rule, think about these verbs as reflecting or turning back (to the start of the verb).
In the table above, you’ll see this put into practice. Let’s look now at some further examples of Spanish reflexive verbs when conjugated.
Yo me voy después de comer.
I am going out after eating.
Ella se llama Claudia.
She is called Claudia.
Reflexive verbs in the imperative form
When the verb is in the imperative form (an order, request or command), then the reflexive pronoun stays at the end of the conjugated form of the verb:
Bañate antes de que nos vayamos.
Take a bath before we go.
If a sentence already has a conjugated verb, you can either put it before the main conjugated verb verb OR attach it to the end of the reflexive verb:
Claudia va a dormirse pronto mañana por la noche.
Ramona se va a dormir pronto esta noche.
Ramona is going to sleep early tomorrow night.
In this example, the infinitive ir (to go) is conjugated as va a (is going to).
The 30 most common reflexive verbs in Spanish
Ok, so we’ve cheated a little here. Having looked online, we found several articles providing extensive lists of reflexive verbs in Spanish.
So, we’ve compiled them and put them into separate tables, splitting them into AR, ER and IR verbs.
What you’ll see in these tables below is a list of Spanish reflexive verbs in their infinitive form.
As an exercise to improve your Spanish, try to conjugate them in your head, or on paper, using the reflexive pronouns we covered earlier.
| AR Verb | ER Verb | IR Verb |
|---|---|---|
| llamarse | aprenderse | aburrirse |
| sentarse | atreverse | irse |
| acordarse | desaparecerse | vestirse |
| acostumbrarse | esconderse | subirse |
| cambiarse | moverse | decidirse |
| besarse | perderse | sentirse |
| bañarse | ponerse | cubrirse |
| levantarse | defenderse | convertirse |
| despertarse | distraerse | reírse |
| colgarse | convencerse | morirse |
What is a reflexive verb in a sentence?
Below are some examples of reflexive verbs in a sentence. As will other verbs you will come across, you will see the conjugated form in the sentence, with the infinitive version (main verb) in parenthesis.
Ella se ducha todos los días (ducharse)
Ellos se van después de comer (irse)
Tú te afeitas tres veces por semana (afeitarse)
Nos lavamos muy a menudo (lavarse)
Ambos se quedan dormidos (quedarse)
No se da cuenta de…(darse cuenta de)
Ella se lava demasiado (lavarse)
Ellos se lavan muy poco (lavarse)
La mujer se cansa de … (cansarse de)
El chico se fija en … (fijarse en)
Nos enamoramos de la ciudad hace mucho tiempo (enamorarse de)
Nosotros nos afeitamos (afeitarse)
Top 5 verbs in Spanish to learn (in their reflexive form)
So, what are some of the most important Spanish verbs to learn in their reflexive form?
Well, we have listed a few examples below. Try to learn these with the corresponding reflexive pronoun before you leave this page!
Llamarse – to be called (to call oneself)
In this case, just think about the reply required to the question we all know – “¿Cómo te llamas?”
The reflexive verb llamarse is probably the most common verb you’ll come across in early stage Spanish.
me llamo
te llamas
se llama
nos llamamos
os llamáis
se llaman
Afeitarse – (to shave)
me afeito
te afeitas
se afeita
nos afeitamos
os afeitáis
se afeitan
Quedarse dormido – (to fall asleep)
me quedo dormido
te quedas dormido
se queda dormido
nos quedamos dormidos
os quedáis dormidos
se quedan dormidos
Levantarse – (to get up)
me levanto
te levantas
se levanta
nos levantamos
os levantáis
se levantan
Lavarse los dientes / las manos – (to brush one’s teeth / hands)
me lavo los dientes / las manos