Transcript reflexive pronoun

Conjugaison
Reflexive verbs
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
 Tu te lèves
 Il/elle se lève
Nous nous levons
Vous vous levez
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 nonreflexive, 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 maquillée (“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 lavés (“You did not
wash yourselves”, the ne…pas surrounds the reflexive
pronoun and conjugated verb, and the past participle
stands alone)