Have you ever wondered how to say you did something to yoursef in Spanish? There is a way to talk about oneself in Spanish called “the reflexive verb.”

Reflexive verbs are those for which the subject and the recepient of the action are the same. In a phrase like “He hurt himself” the words ‘he’ and ‘himself’ refer to the same person. To hurt oneself is therefore a reflexive verb.

In Spanish you use reflexive verbs in the same way as in English, but there are more of them and they are not always easy to recognize. For example, in Spanish levantarse (to get up) is reflexive as is acostarse (to go to bed).

Many verbs fall into this category of doing something to oneself like putting on one’s clothes, washing, shaving or getting ready in the in the morning. Often reflexive verbs like enamorarse (to fall in love) or sentirse (to feel) are not particulary obvious and have to be learned.

Most verbs can be reflexive and non-reflexive. For example, poner (to put). I put the glass on the table – Puse el vaso en la mesa. But when used as a reflexive this verb changes: I put on the sweater (myself) – Me puse el suéter.

To form the reflexive in order to talk about yourself, just put the reflexive pronoun ‘me’ before the first person of any verb; ‘te’ before the second person of any verb; ‘se’ before the third person singular and plural of the verb; and ‘nos’ before the first person plural of the verb like this:

me levanto – I get up
nos levantamos – we get up
te levantas – you get up
se levanta – he/she/gets up
se levanta – they/you get up

Tiquismo of the week:
Polo is a derogatory term for someone from the countryside or any ill-bred person.