Reflexive Verbs in French

In Brief

A French reflexive verb uses a pronoun that matches its subject: je me, tu te, il/elle se, nous nous, vous vous, ils/elles se. Put that pronoun directly before the conjugated verb: Je me lève (“I get up”), but keep the infinitive form with se in a dictionary: se lever. Before a vowel or silent h, me, te, and se become m’, t’, and s’.

Overview

A reflexive action is one that the subject performs on themself: in Elle se lave, the person doing the washing and the person being washed are the same. French marks this relationship with a reflexive pronoun—a short word such as me or se that points back to the subject. English sometimes uses “myself” or “herself,” but often uses no reflexive word at all: French Je me lève is simply “I get up,” not normally “I get myself up.”

French calls the wider group verbes pronominaux (“pronominal verbs”), because their infinitive is presented with se: se lever, se coucher, s’appeler. Some describe genuinely reflexive actions, while others have reciprocal or idiomatic meanings. At A1, the essential skill is the same for all of them: choose the pronoun that agrees with the subject and conjugate the verb normally.

These verbs are central to everyday French. You need them to introduce yourself, describe a routine, discuss personal care, and say how people feel or get along: Je m’appelle…, Nous nous préparons, Ils s’amusent. The core pattern is simple; later sections separate out past-tense agreement and other details that beginners do not need to master immediately.

How It Works

The basic pattern

The dictionary form has two parts:

se + infinitive → se laver, se coucher, se préparer

An infinitive is the unconjugated form listed in a dictionary, like “to wash” in English. In a sentence, change se to match the subject, then conjugate the main verb for that same subject.

Subject	Reflexive pronoun	Pattern with se laver	English
je	me / m’	je me lave	I wash / wash myself
tu	te / t’	tu te laves	you wash / wash yourself
il, elle, on	se / s’	il se lave	he washes / washes himself
nous	nous	nous nous lavons	we wash / wash ourselves
vous	vous	vous vous lavez	you wash / wash yourself/yourselves
ils, elles	se / s’	elles se lavent	they wash / wash themselves

The repeated words in nous nous and vous vous are correct. The first is the subject (“we” or “you”); the second is the reflexive pronoun.

Present-tense models

Most beginner reflexive verbs are regular -er verbs. Remove -er and add the normal present endings -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. The reflexive pronoun does not change those endings.

Person	se lever (to get up)	s’habiller (to get dressed)
je	je me lève	je m’habille
tu	tu te lèves	tu t’habilles
il / elle / on	il se lève	elle s’habille
nous	nous nous levons	nous nous habillons
vous	vous vous levez	vous vous habillez
ils / elles	ils se lèvent	elles s’habillent

Lever has a spelling change: the e becomes è in forms whose ending is not pronounced (lève, lèves, lèvent), but not in levons or levez. This is a property of the verb, not of the reflexive construction.

S’appeler also has a stem change:

Person	s’appeler (to be called)
je	je m’appelle
tu	tu t’appelles
il / elle / on	elle s’appelle
nous	nous nous appelons
vous	vous vous appelez
ils / elles	ils s’appellent

Elision before a vowel

Elision means dropping a vowel and using an apostrophe to make pronunciation flow. Before a vowel or silent h, use m’, t’, or s’:

• Je m’habille. — I get dressed.
• Tu t’appelles comment ? — What is your name?
• Elle s’amuse. — She is having fun.

There is no shortened form of nous or vous: Nous nous amusons and Vous vous habillez.

Pronoun position

In an ordinary sentence, the reflexive pronoun comes immediately before the conjugated verb:

subject + reflexive pronoun + conjugated verb

Paul se couche tôt.

With a second verb followed by an infinitive, the pronoun stays with the verb it belongs to:

• Je veux me coucher. — I want to go to bed.
• Nous allons nous préparer. — We are going to get ready.
• Elle doit s’habiller. — She has to get dressed.

This differs from English, where no equivalent pronoun may appear. Do not move me, te, or se in front of vouloir, aller, or devoir when it describes the infinitive’s action.

Negation

In standard written French, ne … pas surrounds the reflexive pronoun and the conjugated verb together:

subject + ne + reflexive pronoun + verb + pas

• Je ne me couche pas tard. — I do not go to bed late.
• Elle ne s’appelle pas Léa. — Her name is not Léa.
• Nous ne nous levons jamais tôt. — We never get up early.

Before a vowel, ne becomes n’: Il ne s’amuse pas, but Il n’aime pas se lever tôt. In everyday speech, French speakers frequently omit ne: Je me couche pas tard. Keep both parts in careful writing.

Questions

All common question patterns preserve the reflexive pronoun before its verb:

• Rising intonation: Tu t’appelles comment ?
• With est-ce que: Est-ce que vous vous levez tôt ?
• With inversion: Comment vous appelez-vous ?

In formal inversion, the subject pronoun moves after the verb, but the reflexive pronoun remains before it. Comment vous appelez-vous ? therefore contains two instances of vous with different jobs.

Body parts: use the definite article

When the action concerns a body part, French normally uses a reflexive pronoun plus le, la, l’, or les, rather than a possessive such as mon or mes:

• Je me lave les mains. — I wash my hands.
• Elle se brosse les dents. — She brushes her teeth.
• Il s’est cassé le bras. — He broke his arm.

The reflexive pronoun already identifies whose body part it is. A possessive can be used for contrast or in a different construction, but it is not the neutral beginner pattern.

Examples in Context

French	English	Note
Comment tu t’appelles ?	What’s your name?	Informal question
Je m’appelle Nora.	My name is Nora.	Literally “I call myself”
Je me lève à sept heures.	I get up at seven.	Daily routine
Elle se couche tard.	She goes to bed late.	Third-person singular
Nous nous amusons bien.	We’re having fun.	Correct repeated nous
Vous vous préparez pour le travail.	You are getting ready for work.	Singular formal or plural vous
Les enfants s’habillent seuls.	The children get dressed by themselves.	Plural subject, se
Tu te laves les mains avant de manger.	You wash your hands before eating.	Definite article with a body part
On se retrouve devant la gare.	We’ll meet outside the station.	Common reciprocal use of on
Ils ne se parlent plus.	They no longer speak to each other.	Negation and reciprocal meaning
Je vais me coucher.	I’m going to bed.	Pronoun belongs to the infinitive
Elle doit s’occuper du bébé.	She has to look after the baby.	Idiomatic pronominal verb
À quelle heure est-ce que vous vous réveillez ?	What time do you wake up?	Question with est-ce que
Hier, nous nous sommes promenés au bord du lac.	Yesterday, we took a walk by the lake.	Past tense; advanced preview

Common Mistakes

Leaving out the reflexive pronoun

• Wrong: Je lève à sept heures.
• Right: Je me lève à sept heures.
• Why: Se lever requires a matching reflexive pronoun when it means “to get up.” Without it, lever normally means to raise something.

Using se with every subject

• Wrong: Je se couche tôt.
• Right: Je me couche tôt.
• Why: Se is the dictionary form and the third-person pronoun. With je, use me; with tu, use te.

Forgetting to elide

• Wrong: Tu te appelles comment ?
• Right: Tu t’appelles comment ?
• Why: Te loses its vowel before the vowel sound at the start of appelles.

Putting pas between the pronoun and verb

• Wrong: Je ne me pas lève tôt.
• Right: Je ne me lève pas tôt.
• Why: In standard negation, ne goes before the reflexive pronoun and pas follows the conjugated verb.

Copying English possessives with body parts

• Less natural: Je lave mes mains.
• Natural: Je me lave les mains.
• Why: French normally identifies the owner with the reflexive pronoun and uses the definite article for the body part.

Attaching the pronoun to the wrong verb

• Wrong: Je me veux coucher.
• Right: Je veux me coucher.
• Why: It is the action of going to bed that is reflexive, so me stays directly before the infinitive coucher.

Usage Notes

English and French do not mark the same verbs as reflexive. English usually says “I wake up,” “I sit down,” and “I remember,” while French commonly has je me réveille, je m’assieds, and je me souviens. Learn the pronoun as part of the verb: memorise se souvenir de, not just souvenir.

A verb can change meaning when it becomes pronominal. Compare appeler quelqu’un (“to call someone”) with s’appeler (“to be called”), lever la main (“to raise one’s hand”) with se lever (“to get up”), and amuser les enfants (“to entertain the children”) with s’amuser (“to have fun”). A word-for-word translation will not always reveal the difference.

On takes the third-person pronoun se: On se voit demain ? In informal French, this often means “Shall we see each other tomorrow?” or “See you tomorrow?” Although on commonly means “we,” its verb remains grammatically singular: On se prépare, not On nous préparons.

Beyond the Basics: Advanced Use

You do not need to master the details below at A1, but they explain forms you will soon meet.

Not every pronominal verb is literally reflexive

French groups several meanings under the same grammatical pattern:

• Reflexive: the action returns to the subject: Elle se lave.
• Reciprocal: people act on one another: Ils se regardent. (“They look at each other.”)
• Idiomatic or inherently pronominal: the whole expression has its own meaning: se souvenir de (“to remember”), s’en aller (“to leave”), se méfier de (“to distrust”).
• Passive-like: the construction describes what generally happens: Ce livre se vend bien. (“This book sells well.”)

Context determines whether se means “himself/herself,” “each other,” or is simply part of the verb.

The compound past

Pronominal verbs form the passé composé (a common past tense) with être:

subject + reflexive pronoun + être + past participle

A past participle is a verb form such as lavé or levé used to build the compound past.

• Je me suis levé tôt. / Je me suis levée tôt. — I got up early.
• Elles se sont couchées tard. — They went to bed late.
• Nous nous sommes amusés. — We had fun.

In many basic reflexive sentences, the participle agrees in gender and number with the subject. However, the full agreement rule depends on whether the reflexive pronoun is the direct object (the person or thing directly affected by the action). Compare:

• Elle s’est lavée. — She washed herself. Agreement with elle.
• Elle s’est lavé les mains. — She washed her hands. No agreement on lavé, because les mains is the direct object after the verb.
• Ils se sont parlé. — They spoke to each other. No agreement, because parler à quelqu’un uses an indirect object.

Treat this as a later-stage agreement topic rather than trying to solve it by sound: many final agreement letters are silent.

Commands

In an affirmative command, the reflexive pronoun follows the verb with a hyphen. Te becomes toi:

• Lève-toi ! — Get up!
• Habillez-vous ! — Get dressed!
• Dépêchons-nous ! — Let’s hurry!

In a negative command, it returns before the verb:

• Ne te lève pas ! — Don’t get up!
• Ne vous inquiétez pas ! — Don’t worry!

Infinitives and the understood subject

The pronoun before an infinitive agrees with the person understood to perform that action: Je vais me reposer, Tu vas te reposer, Nous allons nous reposer. If the performer changes, the grammar may require a fuller clause: Je veux que tu te reposes (“I want you to rest”). This introduces the subjunctive, a verb form used in certain dependent clauses, and belongs to later study.

Practice Tips

1. Build routines in pairs. Pick five everyday verbs—se réveiller, se lever, se laver, s’habiller, se coucher—and say one sentence with je, then the same sentence with nous. This trains both the pronoun and the verb ending: Je me lève / Nous nous levons.
2. Keep the pronoun attached while learning vocabulary. Put se souvenir de or s’appeler on a card as a complete expression. On the reverse, include one changed form such as je me souviens de or elle s’appelle.
3. Transform one sentence three ways. Start with Tu te prépares, make it negative (Tu ne te prépares pas), then place it after another verb (Tu dois te préparer). This makes word order automatic without requiring long exercises.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Regular -ER Verbs — supplies the present-tense endings used by many common reflexive verbs.
• Advanced extension: Pronominal Verb Nuances — explores idiomatic meanings and more complex combinations with pronominal verbs.