Reflexive Verbs

Some verbs in Spanish are reflexive. This means that the actions are done to oneself. In Spanish, reflexive verbs can be demonstrated by the use of pronouns like "myself," "yourself," "himself," and "herself".
Here are some examples of reflexive verbs:

Bañarse-To shower(oneself)
Despertarse -To wake up(oneself)

​When do we use reflexive verbs?

When the subject and the object in a sentence is the same we use reflexive verbs in Spanish.

Remember the subject is the thing doing an action and the object is the thing receiving the action.


Here is an example: "He looks at himself in the mirror"

The subject "He" and the object "himself" are the same.

​These are reflexive pronouns that are used with reflexive verbs. These are important to learn to use.

​Something to note is that in English translation the reflexive pronouns (myself, himself) are not always used. It still remains an action being done to oneself even though in English we would never say "I comb my hair myself". The implication of "I comb my hair" is the same.

​Additional Resources

• Irregular Verbs

• Reflexive Verbs(Youtube Video)