Conjugaison Reflexive verbs

 Reflexive verbs are roughly the equivalent of English verbs involving -self or -selves, such as he hurt himself, they weighed themselves, we prepared ourselves etc. In these verbs, the subject and object actually represent the same thing or person.

 French, reflexive verbs have an extra object pronoun inserted between the subject and the verb. In this case, some grammars call this the reflexive pronoun. Depending on the subject ( je, tu etc), the reflexive pronoun is as shown in the following table:  Je me lève Nous nous levons  Tu te lèves Vous vous levez  Il/elle se lève Ils/elles se lèvent

When NOT to use reflexive pronouns  Use the reflexive pronouns only when the action is being performed on the subject of the sentence. If the verb is being done to something or someone other than the subject of the sentence, it’s not reflexive.  Many French reflexive verbs can also be non- reflexive, as well. For example:  Tu te laves (“You wash yourself”), but  Tu laves le chien (“You wash the dog”)

 In the present tense, the reflexive pronouns go directly in front of the verb.  English: “I wake up” → French: “Je me réveille” (literally, “I wake myself up”)  With ne…pas and other negation  In single-verb constructions, the negation structure goes around the entire verb structure (negation part 1 + reflexive pronoun + verb + negation part 2).  Elle ne se dépêche pas. (“She does not hurry”)  Vous ne vous rêvez jamais. (“You never dream”)  In compound (two-part) verb structures, the negation goes around the reflexive pronoun and first verb (negation part 1 + reflexive pronoun + conjugated berb + negation part 2 + past participle).  Il ne s’est pas réveillé. (“He did not wake up”)

Conjugating reflexive verbs in passé composé  NOT REFLEXIVE: J’ ai maquillé mon ami (“I applied makeup to my friend”, conjugated with avoir, no feminine ending on the past participle maquillé)  REFLEXIVE: Je me suis maquillé e (“I applied my makeup”, conjugated with être, feminine ending on the past participle maquillé because the speaker is female)  With negation in passé composé  REFLEXIVE: Vous ne vous étiez pas lavé s (“You did not wash yourselves”, the ne…pas surrounds the reflexive pronoun and conjugated verb, and the past participle stands alone)