Reflexive verbs indicate that the subject (someone or something) does an action to itself. These verbs are very common in Spanish and they often correspond to English verbs that work with “oneself”, such as “To Teach Oneself, To Introduce Oneself, To Injure Oneself, etc.”

So how can we recognize them in Spanish? Easy. These verbs end in “se”: irse (to leave), sentarse (to sit), bañarse (to take a shower/to bathe), quedarse (to stay).

These become two-word verbs when we conjugate them. We add a reflexive pronoun that changes depending on the person:

These reflexive pronouns go after the subject and before the verb:

Notice that some reflexive verbs have very specific meanings in English (and don’t necessarily translate to an action we do to “ourselves”) like quedarse – to stay or apellidarse – to tell your last name).

Common reflexive verbs related to our daily routine.

Note: when using the reflexive verb “lavarse” in combination with a body part, like “lavarse los dientes”, don’t say, “los niños se lavan SUS dientes” but rather “los niños se lavan LOS dientes”.  Because the verb is reflexive in Spanish, we don’t need to show possession like we do in English (the children brush THEIR teeth). 

How well do you know reflexive verbs in Spanish? Take our reflexive verb quiz below. 

In this lesson, you learned what reflexive verbs are in Spanish and how to conjugate them.  Reflexive verbs indicate actions that the subject does to itself, and are used frequently to describe our daily routine.  These verbs always become two-word verbs, with a reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos) placed after the subject of the sentence and before the conjugated verb.  The main verb then follows normal conjugations rules.   Now that you know how to conjugate reflexive verbs, check out this vocabulary post to start talking about your daily routine. Don’t confuse the verb “gustar” with reflexive verbs, learn about “Gustar” .