Lesson 12: Reflexive verbs in the present tense

Part 1: What is a reflexive verb, and why French has so many

A reflexive (pronominal) verb is a verb whose action loops back onto the subject. In the infinitive, French marks this with se glued in front of the verb:

• se laver — to wash (oneself)
• s'appeler — to be called (lit. "to call oneself")
• se lever — to get up

Compare:

• Je lave la voiture. — I wash the car. (regular verb, action on an object)
• Je me lave. — I wash (myself). I take a shower / get cleaned up.

Subject and object are the same person, so French requires a "mirror" pronoun.

Big shift for English speakers: English mostly drops the reflexive pronoun. We say "I wash", "I shave", "I get up", "I hurry", "I feel good" — French insists on the pronoun every time: je me lave, je me rase, je me lève, je me dépêche, je me sens bien. If a French verb describes something you do to or for yourself, expect a reflexive. Forgetting me/te/se is the single most common English-speaker mistake in this lesson.

Part 2: The reflexive pronouns

Remember: me, te, se drop their e before a vowel or silent h (élision from Lesson 1) → m', t', s'. Nous and vous never élide.

The placement rule, no exceptions:

The reflexive pronoun always sits directly before the conjugated verb. Nothing splits them.

• Je me lève. ✓
• Je lève me. ✗ (English word order — wrong)
• Je me lève maintenant. ✓
• Je m'appelle Marie. ✓ (élision before a vowel)

Part 3: Conjugating se laver (the regular -ER model)

Laver is a perfectly regular -ER verb (Lesson 7). Reflexive conjugation = subject + matching pronoun + normal verb form.

Notice: je me lave, il se lave, ils se lavent all sound the same — the final -s and -nt are silent. The subject pronoun (and context) is what tells you who's doing what.

Part 4: Se lever (e → è in the stressed forms)

Lever is a spelling-change -ER verb: the mute e of the stem becomes è whenever the ending is silent (so the stem gets the stress). This affects four of the six forms.

The pattern is simple: the nous and vous forms keep the flat e (because the stress falls on the ending). All others take è. Same logic as acheter, promener, se promener.

Part 5: S'appeler (l → ll in the stressed forms)

Appeler belongs to the same spelling family but doubles the l instead of taking è.

• Comment tu t'appelles ? — What's your name? (lit. "How do you call yourself?")
• Je m'appelle Pierre. — My name is Pierre. (lit. "I call myself Pierre.")

Pronunciation watch: m'appelle — double l, sounds "mah-PELL" with an open è-vowel. Nous appelons — single l, sounds "noo-zah-puh-LOHN" with a flat e (and liaison: the s of nous wakes up as a z-sound before the vowel). The ear is your guide.

Part 6: Se sentir (to feel)

Sentir is the same irregular -IR pattern as partir, sortir, dormir: the singular drops the final stem consonant.

• Je me sens bien. — I feel good / I'm fine.
• Comment tu te sens ? — How are you feeling?
• Elle ne se sent pas bien. — She doesn't feel well.

English trap: "How are you?" can be Comment ça va ? (general) or Comment tu te sens ? (about your physical/emotional state). Se sentir is always followed by an adverb or adjective: bien, mal, fatigué, heureux.

Part 7: Negation with reflexive verbs

In Lesson 8 you learned that ne … pas wraps around the conjugated verb. With a reflexive verb, ne … pas wraps around the pronoun + the verb together as a single unit.

ne goes before the reflexive pronoun, pas goes after the conjugated verb. The reflexive pronoun never leaves the verb.

• Je ne me lève pas tôt. — I don't get up early.
• Il ne se lave pas. — He's not washing.
• Nous ne nous couchons pas tard. — We don't go to bed late.
• Tu ne t'appelles pas Marc ? — Your name isn't Marc?

Diagnostic: if you see ne directly before the verb (with no pronoun in between), you've forgotten the reflexive pronoun. Je ne lève pas tôt — wrong. Je ne me lève pas tôt — right.

Part 8: Questions with reflexive verbs

Intonation (the easiest, used constantly in speech):

• Tu te lèves à sept heures ?

With est-ce que:

• Est-ce que tu te lèves à sept heures ?

Inversion (more formal) — only the subject pronoun and the verb swap; the reflexive pronoun stays glued in front:

• Te lèves-tu à sept heures ?
• Comment vous appelez-vous ? (the textbook question from Lesson 1!)
• Comment s'appelle-t-il ? — What's his name?

Part 9: Three flavors of reflexive

1. Truly reflexive — action on oneself

• Je me lave. — I wash (myself).
• Elle se regarde dans le miroir. — She looks at herself in the mirror.

2. Reciprocal — to/at each other (plural only)

• Ils se parlent. — They talk to each other.
• Nous nous aimons. — We love each other.
• Elles se voient souvent. — They see each other often.

3. Idiomatic — se is just glued on; meaning is its own thing

These have no logical "self" meaning at all — French just packages them that way.

Hack: if the meaning feels random, it's an idiomatic reflexive. Learn it as a fixed unit, don't try to derive it.

Part 10: Reflexive verbs in the infinitive

When a reflexive verb sits as an infinitive after another verb (aimer, vouloir, devoir, aller, pouvoir + inf.), the pronoun matches the subject — it does NOT stay as se.

• Je vais me lever. — I'm going to get up. (NOT je vais se lever)
• Tu dois te laver. — You have to wash up.
• Nous voulons nous coucher. — We want to go to bed.
• Ils aiment se promener. — They like to take walks. (se is correct here because the subject is ils)

The most common mistake: leaving se across all six persons. The reflexive pronoun is a chameleon — it always changes to match the subject, even in the infinitive.

Part 11: Telling time

Reflexive verbs and times of day go together — je me lève à sept heures is the bread-and-butter sentence of this lesson. Here's the time system.

The frame

• Quelle heure est-il ? — What time is it?
• Il est … — It is …

On the hour

• Il est une heure. — It's 1 o'clock. (note: une, not un — heure is feminine)
• Il est deux heures. — It's 2 o'clock.
• Il est midi. — It's noon.
• Il est minuit. — It's midnight.

Quarter and half past

• Il est trois heures et quart. — It's a quarter past three. (3:15)
• Il est trois heures et demie. — It's half past three. (3:30)
• Il est midi et demi. — It's half past noon. (demi, masculine, agrees with midi)

Minutes past

• Il est trois heures dix. — It's 3:10.
• Il est trois heures vingt-cinq. — It's 3:25.

To the hour

For 35–59 minutes, French counts down from the next hour using moins ("less"):

• Il est quatre heures moins le quart. — It's a quarter to four. (3:45)
• Il est quatre heures moins dix. — It's ten to four. (3:50)
• Il est quatre heures moins vingt. — It's twenty to four. (3:40)

"At" what time

Use à before the time:

• Je me lève à sept heures. — I get up at seven o'clock.
• Je me couche à onze heures et demie. — I go to bed at eleven thirty.

Times of day

• du matin / de l'après-midi / du soir — a.m. / p.m. (when you need to disambiguate)
• Il est huit heures du matin. — It's 8 a.m.
• Il est huit heures du soir. — It's 8 p.m.

French also uses the 24-hour clock for schedules and official contexts: Le train part à 20 h 15 ("vingt heures quinze") = the train leaves at 8:15 p.m. In casual speech, 12-hour with du matin / du soir is normal.