Spanish reflexive verbs explained: me levanto, me ducho, me voy

✌🏼 ¡Hola aventurero!

Quick question: how do you say your name in Spanish?

Me llamo… ✅ Congratulations, you've been using a reflexive verb since day one. Me llamo Lucía literally means "I call myself Lucía" 😄

In this post you'll get Spanish reflexive verbs explained with one picture, the visual way I explain grammar in my Visual Spanish Grammar Book.

1One picture: the mirror

Imagine someone standing in front of a mirror 🪞

When the action goes out to someone or something else, there's no little word. When it bounces back to the person doing it, Spanish adds me, te, se…

English often drops the "myself": I wake up, I get dressed. That's why these feel strange at first. Spanish keeps it every time.

Notice Me lavo las manos, not mis manos. The me already tells people whose hands they are.

2Me, te, se: who it comes back to

The little word changes with the person, just like the verb ending. Here's ducharse (to have a shower):

In the dictionary, reflexive verbs have -se on the end: ducharse, llamarse, irse. That -se is your sign to add me, te, se when you use it.

Most of the time the pronoun goes right before the verb. But it can move:

With commands, a positive one gets the pronoun stuck on the end (dúchate), and a negative one puts it in front (no te duches). There's more on the two places with ir a in ir a + infinitive.

3Getting ready to go out

Getting ready for a night out is full of them:

4Feelings: me aburro, me enfado

Teacher bit 🤓 Lots of feeling verbs are reflexive, because the feeling happens to you. Aburrir means "to bore" someone. Aburrirse means "to get bored" yourself. Same mirror: the action comes back.

Compare Me aburre and Me aburro. Esta película me aburre (this film bores me) works like gustar: the film does it to you. Me aburro con esta película (I'm getting bored with this film) is the mirror. Both are correct. If the first one looks odd, read how gustar works in Spanish.

5Verbs that change meaning: voy and me voy

Some verbs change meaning with the pronoun:

Ir is about where you're going. Irse is about leaving where you are. So when you're heading out of a bar, a class or a video call, it's me voy: Bueno, chicos, me voy. ¡Hasta mañana! (Right, guys, I'm off. See you tomorrow!)

6Each other: nos vemos

One more job for nos, os and se: with two or more people, they can mean "each other".

• Nos vemos mañana. (See you tomorrow. Literally "we see each other".)
• ¿Os conocéis? (Do you two know each other?)
• Se quieren mucho. (They love each other a lot.)

Here's everything together. Two flatmates, half an hour before a night out:

Date prisa (hurry up) is darse prisa, with the pronoun stuck on the end because it's a command ✨

7Practise it this week

1. 1

   Say it while you get ready

   Next time you get ready to go out, say each step out loud: Me ducho, me seco el pelo, me pongo los vaqueros, me miro al espejo… ¡y me voy!

2. 2

   Describe someone else getting ready

   Switch to se. Describe a flatmate, partner or friend: Mi hermana se maquilla en dos minutos y siempre se pone las mismas botas.

3. 3

   Say goodbye with me voy

   At the end of your next Spanish class or chat, finish with Bueno, me voy and ¡Nos vemos!

If seeing grammar as a picture helps, my Visual Spanish Grammar Book explains all of Spanish grammar that way, with charts and colour-coded tables you can come back to 📘

Now tell me 👀 How long does it take you to get ready to go out? Answer in Spanish with at least two reflexive verbs, and cuéntame in the comments!

Lucía · Linguist, translator, Spanish teacher and author of the Visual Spanish Grammar Book.
Come and learn Spanish with me and other aventureros like yourself at skool.com/learnspanish 🎉