You have a morning routine, and most of it is done with
"reflexive verbs"!
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WE HUMAN BEINGS ARE
REFLEXIVE ACTION | |
But, first, let's chat about verbs for a second and refresh our memories. . . .
First, every language in the world has a set of words categorized as "verbs."
Everyone of these "verbs" has two specific characteristics:
1. they are words -- or sets of
words! -- that describe actions
or states-of-being.
2. they place the action
somewhen in time -- we call this characteristic
verb tense.
Now, there are many different sub-categories of verbs.
They can be classified as transitive
verbs; as present tense
verbs; as helping verbs;
and, yes, as reflexive verbs, among
many others. We're not going to worry about any of the other types verbs
just now . . . let's concentrate on the one sub-category called "reflexive verbs."
There's not a single
day in your life that you do not do a bunch
of "reflexive verb" actions.
| "How can that be?" you ask. . . . |
| "I don't do 'reflexive' things!" you exclaim. . . . |
|
"I always knew that Steve was a little crazy," you muse. . . . |
Nope, he's not
crazy – well, maybe a little bit – but not about this! You and I constantly
use "reflexive verbs" in our everyday lives.
Here's a typical morning for many of us — except for the 4 a.m. and fake leg part!
Most mornings, I wake up at 4:00 a.m.
I lay in bed for a minute, then I get up,
put on my fake leg and my Nike sandal,
and head toward the bathroom. I turn on the cold water faucet, wait for it to
get cold, then fill the glass with cold water so I can take
the two pills I take every morning. Better living through chemistry! Then, I
grab my toothbrush -- hoping that my friend the spider (who lives underneath my
medicine cabinet) hasn't been messing with it! What the heck does he . . . she?
eat anyway? . . . there ain't no flies around! -- anyway, I open the toothpaste
tube and put a healthy portion of Aquafresh toothpaste on the brush. Then, I
brush my teeth. I then
sit on my throne and do my morning
business, after which I get up and head
toward the shower. I turn on the hot water, wait for it to heat up,
take off my leg, then I get in the
shower stall. I have a real set routine in the shower: I
shampoo my hair first, then I
wash my face with my pink scrubby,
rinse myself off , and then I
put creme rinse in my hair. I turn
off the water, then I wash my
bodzuda with Dial soap and my scrubby. I wash my silicone sleeve – the
thing I put on my stumpy leg to
hold the fake leg on – and then I turn the water back on. I
rinse my hair, my bod and my
sleeve. Then I turn off the shower and grab the towel. I
dry myself off, dry my sleeve,
then I put the sleeve on my stump
and put on my fake leg.
I brush my hair and
put a couple of caterpillars in
it (those are the things that hold my hair in a pony tail). Then, I walk
back to the bedroom and sit down on
the end of the bed. I take off the leg
and the sleeve, then I put some medicine
on my stump end. I put on the sleeve
again, then I grab my Old Spice stick deodorant and
put that on. Next I
put on
some undies, grab a pair of Zubas, a T-shirt and
put them on. Then I
put the leg back on, along with a sock
and a shoe on my good leg. I stand up,
put on my coat, feel in the pocket to
make sure I have my keys, and I head for the door. . . . Of
course, the reflexives actions were in this color )
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You will have noticed
that we English-speakers do not always have to use the 'reflexive pronouns': MYSELF . . .
HIMSELF . . . HERSELF . . . OURSELVES . . . ITSELF . . . THEMSELVES for a verb to denote a reflexive action. In English, sometimes we use them:
|
I look at MYSELF in
every mirror I walk by. |
| Scampy, my cat, cleans HERSELF fastidiously each day. |
and sometimes we don't . . . just like the above paragraph demonstrated. Please remember this:
You probably did not realize it, but you've been using a
"reflexive verb" from the very first day of Spanish
class with me. Each time you answered my question, ¿Cómo te llamas? with "Me llamo _____," you
were using the reflexive verb llamarse.
| Steve says: |
|
If you examine this infinitive carefully, you will see the ol' -AR verb llamar embedded in
there. |
| You say: |
|
So what's with that se attached to it? |
| Steve says: |
|
Well, that's a 'reflexive pronoun,' which serves as a "marker". . . it alerts you to the fact that this llamar verb is now a "reflexive verb" in its infinitive form. The llamar, of course, means: "to call," like on the telephone or to call to dinner, and is used in sentences like: Yo llamo a mis padres cada domingo. * The verb llamarse means "to call oneself." |
| You say: |
|
Oh. |
| Steve says: |
|
Is that pretty clear now? |
| You say: |
|
That's as clear as mud! |
| Steve says: |
|
Do you need some more information? |
| You say: |
|
Uh-huh. |
| Steve says: |
|
Okie-Dokie! |
| |
| Here we go. Remember your verb conjugation chart? You know the one I mean: |
| |
| Well, just like there are six conjugation cells for each verb in
Spanish, there are six . . . count ‘em . . . six reflexive pronoun cells
that fit into this same
schematic,
and each reflexive pronoun corresponds directly to the subject and verb conjugation in the cell. Let me show you what I mean. Here are the reflexive pronouns that go with yo, tú, él, ella, usted, mi madre, nosotros . . . and so on: |
| |
| Now, we put them together with the conjugations of the verb llamar and, BAM!, |
| we have a beautifully
conjugated reflexive verb.
S-
W-
E-
E-
T-
!!
And now you can see exactly where we got that first-day icebreaker
"¿Cómo te llamas?" and the correct answer
"¿Me llamo _______?" |
| |
| OK, let's make a quick list of the verbs that can be "reflexive verbs". I'll
give you their English meanings too -- yep, you can believe all the good things
you hear about me!! -- then we'll do some exercises with 'em. |
| despertarse (ie) | | to wake (oneself) up |
| levantarse | | to get (oneself) up |
| lavarse | | to wash (oneself) |
| cepillarse | | to brush (oneself) |
| limpiarse | | to clean (oneself) |
| ducharse | | to shower (oneself) |
| bañarse | | to bathe (oneself) |
| secarse | | to dry (oneself) |
| ponerse | | to put on (oneself) |
| maquillarse | | to put makeup on (oneself) |
| cortarse | | to cut (oneself) |
| romperse | | to break (oneself) |
| fracturarse | | to fracture (oneself) |
| peinarse | | to comb (oneself) |
| morirse (ue) | | to die (oneself) |
| echarse | | to throw (oneself) |
| casarse | | to get (oneself) married |
| preocuparse | | to worry (oneself) | |
| presentarse | | to introduce (oneself) |
| cambiarse de | | to change (oneself) from |
| enamorarse | | to fall (oneself) in love with |
| despedirse (i) | | to take (oneself's) leave of |
| mudarse | | to move (oneself) to or from |
| trasladarse | | to transfer (oneself) to or from |
| quejarse de | | to complain (oneself) about |
| equivocarse | | to find (oneself) in error |
| atreverse | | to get(oneself's)courage up enough to |
| comportarse | | to comport (oneself) |
| suicidarse | | to kill (oneself) |
| abstenerse(ie) | | to abstain (oneself) from |
| arrepentirse (ie) | | to repent (oneself) of |
| perderse(ie) | | to lose (oneself) |
| meterse | | to put (oneself) |
| acostarse(ue) | | to lay (oneself) down |
| desnudarse | | to get (oneself) naked |
| quitarse | | to remove from (oneself) or to remove from (oneself) |
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| I'll show you how we move the pronoun around and conjugate out these "reflexive verbs" on the next page, OK? |
