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¡Hola! Welcome to your Spanish lesson. Today we will learn how to talk about your daily routine using special verbs called reflexive verbs!
In Spanish, when you do an action to yourself, you use a reflexive verb. For example, brushing your own hair or washing your own hands requires a reflexive pronoun like 'se' or 'me'. We use these verbs to describe our daily routine (la rutina diaria).
Let us look at how these verbs change. The verb 'lavarse' (to wash oneself) uses the pronoun 'me' (myself) when you talk about yourself: 'Yo me lavo' (I wash myself). Notice how the pronoun 'me' slides right in front of the conjugated verb!
Let us analyze a real-world case. If you say 'Yo despierto a mi hermano' (I wake up my brother), you do NOT use a reflexive pronoun because the action goes to someone else. But if you say 'Yo me despierto' (I wake myself up), you must use 'me' because you are doing the action to yourself.
Look at this sentence: 'Sofía cepilla a su perro' (Sofía brushes her dog) versus 'Sofía se cepilla el pelo' (Sofía brushes her hair). Explain why one sentence uses 'se' and the other does not.
- Identify the person doing the action: In both sentences, Sofía is the one doing the brushing.
- Identify who or what receives the action: In the first sentence, the dog ('su perro') gets brushed. In the second sentence, Sofía's own hair ('el pelo') gets brushed.
- Analyze if the action is reflexive: Since the dog is a separate animal, the first action is not reflexive. Sofía brushing her own hair is a reflexive action.
- Formulate the conclusion: Because brushing her own hair is done to herself, we must use the reflexive pronoun 'se' before the verb 'cepilla' to make 'se cepilla'.