How to use reflexive pronouns in Spanish?

Reflexive pronouns are used with verbs to talk about actions like “l wash myself,” in which the person doing and receiving the action is the same. Certain verbs in Spanish like lavar (meaning to wash) or llamar (meaning to call) can become reflexive by adding reflexive pronouns: lavarse (meaning to wash oneself) or llamarse (meaning to call oneself). In this post, we will go over what reflexive pronouns are and how to use them with verbs. Ready? Let’s dive in!

Reflexive pronouns accompany verbs to indicate that the action done by the subject is acting on itself. Let’s compare the following examples:

• Me peino.

  Translation: I comb (my hair) myself.
• Peino a mi hija.

  Translation: I comb my daughter’s hair.

In the first example, the reflexive pronoun me indicates that I’m combing my own hair — meaning that I’m performing the action on myself. In the second example, without the pronoun, I’m combing someone else’s hair, so the action is not reflexive because I’m not doing it to myself. When a verb is used with a reflexive pronoun, they are called reflexive verbs.

There are two important things you need to remember about reflexive verbs:

1. Whoever does the action (the subject) and whoever receives the action (the object) are the same, that is, they refer to the same person:

   subjectobject

   Yo me miro en el espejo.

   Translation: I look at myself in the mirror.

2. When verbs are used as reflexives, they always go with a reflexive pronoun. This reflexive pronoun indicates the object — which is the same as the subject!

When verbs are used as reflexives, they always go with a reflexive pronoun. These are the Spanish reflexive pronouns:

Now, let’s go over how to use them with verbs.

One trick that works for my students is that when we use reflexive verbs, the ending of the verb and the reflexive pronoun always match the same person. Let’s look at some examples:

• yo

  me peino
• tú

  te peinas

Take a look at the first example above. We see that the subject is yo (meaning I), because the verb is conjugated in the first person singular yo = peino (meaning I comb), and the verb must agree with the subject. In addition, the reflexive pronoun must correspond to the same person as the subject. If we take a look at the table above, we see that the reflexive pronoun corresponding to yo (meaning I) is me. Notice that the reflexive pronoun is placed before the verb. Now observe the second example, where tú (meaning you) is the subject. In this case, the verb is conjugated as peinas (meaning you comb) and the reflexive pronoun is te.

For a refresher on Spanish subject pronouns, look no further and check out our post!

As we mentioned above, reflexive pronouns are used to indicate that the subject and the object of the action refer to the same person. This not only applies to the person itself, but also to their body parts, or in some cases, something the subject has, carries, or wears.

For example, the action can fall on:

Some verbs, like lavar (meaning to wash), can be used as a reflexive verb or as a non-reflexive verb. For instance, you can wash your hands (reflexive pronoun) or you can wash something else, like the dishes (no reflexive pronoun).

• Reflexive:

  Te lavas las manos.

  Translation: You wash your hands.
• Not reflexive:

  Lavas los platos.

  Translation: You wash the dishes.

Remember that if you want to use a verb as a reflexive, then you always need to use the reflexive pronoun and it has to match the subject. This is particularly important when distinguishing between sentences with other types of pronouns. Allow me to explain.

Notice the following two examples with the verb acostar (meaning to lie down/go to bed).

In both examples, the subject is yo (meaning I). Notice that both have a pronoun, but in the first example, the verb is reflexive and the object being put to bed is me (meaning myself). In the second example, the object is los (meaning them) and it has to refer to other people such as “the kids.” So in this case, we are using a direct object pronoun and not a reflexive one!

If you want to go over the uses of Spanish direct object pronouns, take a look at our post!

Reflexive pronouns are very frequent in Spanish, and they have a few more uses. Let’s go over them next!

We can express reciprocal actions using reciprocal pronouns, which are the same as the reflexive pronouns. That is, we can express what two or more people do to each other in a reciprocal way.

• Los perritos se abrazan.

  Translation: The doggies hug each other.
• Juan y María se escriben.

  Translation: Juan and María write to each other.
• De niños, mi hermano y yo nos peleábamos por los juguetes.

  Translation: When we were kids, my brother and I would fight over toys.

Notice that in English in most cases we use “each other,” whereas in Spanish we only need the reciprocal pronoun!

Sometimes, we use a reflexive pronoun to express that something has been done thoroughly or completely. With verbs of consumption like beber/tomar (meaning to drink) and comer (meaning to eat) the reflexive implies that the beverage or food was consumed completely.

This same idea applies to other verbs like aprenderse (meaning to learn by heart) and saberse (meaning to know by heart/to memorize).

• Martha se aprendió la tabla periódica antes del examen.

  Translation: Martha learned the periodic table by heart before the exam.
• ¡Ya me sé tu número de teléfono!

  Translation: I have memorized your phone number!

Finally, some verbs have a very different meaning when used with a reflexive pronoun. Let’s check them out!

To learn more about the difference between verbs ponerse and quedarse, check out our post on Spanish verbs of becoming!

In this post, we saw that reflexive pronouns are used to express an action that falls on the subject, on a body part of the subject, or on something that the subject wears or carries. In order to do so, the reflexive pronoun has to match the subject of the sentence. We also saw that reflexive pronouns can be placed before or after the verb depending on the type of phrase.

We also discussed how these pronouns can be used to express reciprocity or to emphasize completion. Finally, we went over verbs that change meaning when paired with a reflexive pronoun.

Do you want to practice? Try out this Spanish exercise we created for you! Enjoy!