Welcome to Vol. 74 of
the Spanish Online Newsletter! Part of the Spanish
Learning Blog - your weekly lessons with mp3 files, as well
as links to Spanish travel spots and more. To give the gift of
Spanish teaching this Christmas, check out our new Insta
Spanish eShop. Mention you are a newsletter subscriber in the
"comments" box and we will make sure to apply a 20% discount for
any of the products we publish (I think you know which ones those
are by now :)
Happy holidays to all of you! We have a few exciting
new features on the websites - probably the most important of which
is the Penpal
Finder. This allows you to post a quick paragraph
on the Insta Spanish site saying that you are either looking for
a Spanish speaking penpal, or offering yourself as one - and people
can respond to your right on the site, through a form that keeps
your email address hidden, so that you won't end up getting unwanted
spam as the result of posting. Also, you can choose to correspond
w/ people via the private messaging features on the website. I'll
be migrating all of the Penpal seeking posts on the forums over
to this new section - so check
it out and consider posting if that's
something your're interested in!
We also have a great new chatroom with a strong language
filter, as well as a virtual bot named Esteban who you can chat
with even when no actual human beings are online. He can answer
the basic questions about where he's from, how many brothers and
sisters he has, what he does for work, etc - but it's a work in
progress - so don't get frustrated if you find Esteban's vocabulary
to be limited! You have to register to view the chat - sorry about
that but it is necessary to keep our chatroom clean and family
friendly. There will also be an organized grammar chat hour - this
week I've scheduled Wednesday, December 14th, at 6pm West Coast
time (9pm East Coast time).
Reflexive Verbs
Reflexive verbs are verbs that are used with a pronoun, in order
to refer back to the person doing the action.
 Click
above to hear an mp3
Reflexive verbs
often have to do with parts
of the body, clothing,
or one's state of mind. The infinitive forms
of reflexive verbs have the pronoun SE attached to the end, as
you can see below:
aburrirse................... to get bored
acordarse..................to remember
acostarse................. to go to bed
afeitarse....................to shave
alegrarse...................to be happy
animarse................... to cheer up
arreglarse..................to get ready
asustarse...................to get scared
bañarse.....................to bathe oneself
calmarse....................to calm down
caerse.......................to fall (down)
cansarse....................to get tired
casarse....................to get married
cepillarse...................to brush (hair, teeth)
colocarse...................to get a job
cortarse.....................to cut (hair, nails)
decidirse....................to make up one's mind
despedirse.................to say goodbye to
despertarse................to wake up
divertirse....................to have a good time
dormirse.....................to fall asleep
ducharse.....................to take a shower
enfermarse................. to get sick
enojarse......................to get angry
imaginarse...................to imagine
irse to leave............... (take oneself)
llamarse...................... to call oneself
lastimarse................... to hurt oneself
lavarse........................ to wash (up)
levantarse.................... to get up
maquillarse.................. to put on makeup
peinarse...................... to comb (hair)
pintarse....................... to put on makeup
ponerse....................... to put on, wear,
or become
preocuparse................. to worry
probarse....................... to try on
quebrarse..................... to break (arm, leg)
quedarse...................... to stay, remain
quejarse....................... to complain
quemarse..................... to burn oneself
quitarse........................ to take off (clothes)
romperse...................... to tear (clothes); to break (arm, leg)
sentarse........................to sit down
sentirse........................ to feel
sorprenderse................ to be surprised
vestirse........................ to get dressed
Now let's look at some sentences
using these words:
Yo me siento mejor
I feel better
¿De verdad te pones calcetines para dormir?
Do you really put on socks to sleep?
¡Tú siempre te preocupas tanto!
You always worry so much!
Nos levantamos a las ocho de la mañana.
We get up at 8 o'clock.
You can also vary the placement of the pronoun - which doesn't
always have to go in front of the verb. Take a look at these examples:
Yo necesito levantarme más temprano
I need to wake up earlier
¿De verdad te vas
a poner esa falda?
Are you really going to put on that skirt?
Ellos no deben precuparse tanto.
They shouldn't worry so much.
Nos gusta levantarnos a las ocho de la mañana.
We like to get up at 8 o'clock.
Reflexive Pronouns - what are they?
Reflexive pronouns are those little words used
with verbs that indicate WHO the action is being done to. For
1st and 2nd person, the reflexive pronouns are:
me,
te, nos
For
the third person the reflexive pronoun is
se
In addition to these pronouns, the expressions
"sí mismo" can be used
sí mismo or sí misma
mí mismo or mí misma
ti mismo or ti misma
These can be used in conjunction with the word
mismo or misma - often to add a greater degree of specificity
- adding the word "myself, yourself, themselves, etc, as you
can see in the following examples:
| Yo
me amo a
mí mismo. |
I love myself |
| Ellos se aman
a sí mismos. |
They love themselves. |
| Ella se ama a
sí misma. |
She loves herself. |
The extra "mismo" part of the sentence can be helpful in examples
like the 2nd one above - where the sentence could be interpreted
differently without it. Look at these variations using the verb
amar.
| Ellos se aman. |
They love each other. |
| Ellos se aman
a sí mismos. |
They love themselves. |
| Ellos aman la
pintura. |
They love the painting. |
Worksheet/Activity: Reflexive
Verbs
Quiz: Reflexive
Spanish Verbs
|
