5. Expresemos actividades relacionadas al cuidado personal y la rutina diaria: Los pronombres reflexivos

Before we study the reflexive verbs and pronouns, let’s review the grammar structures that are related to the 2 verb rule, verbs that require a preposition between the 2 verbs and also the present progressive form.

Yo quiero caminar en el parque, pero mi hermano prefiere caminar en el gimnasio. A él no le gusta el parque porque hace calor, pero yo quiero caminar en el lago (lake). No quiero caminar en el gimnasio porque soy entrenador (coach). ¡Quiero salir del gimnasio! Tengo que estar en el gimnasio todos los días de la semana y cuando quiero hacer ejercicio con mi hermano los fines de semana, ¡él quiere ir al gimnasio! Debo de buscar otro trabajo. Necesito trabajar fuera (out) del gimnasio. Espero tener un nuevo trabajo muy pronto (very soon) ¡Voy a estar muy feliz en mi nuevo trabajo! En este momento (in this moment), estoy escribiendo mi renuncia (resignation) para no trabajar más en el gimnasio.

All the conjugated verbs in this paragraph are actions that a subject (yo, mi hermano or él) is doing but not to him/herself. There are actions related to daily routines that often take another grammar element. Let’s examine the following examples where the subjects are the recipient of the action:

She bathes herself.

The subject is performing the action for herself à She bathes herself.

Me ducho en la mañana.

I shower (myself) in the morning.

Te peinas el pelo.

You brush your hair (yourself).

Se habla.

He/she is talking to (himself).

Me veo en el espejo.

I see (myself) in the mirror.

When the subject is performing the action toward or for him or herself, the action is called reflexive. In Spanish, many actions related to personal care or daily routines are reflexive. To indicate a reflexive action you need to use the reflexive pronouns. Compare the sentences below:

Ella baña al perro.

She bathes the dog. The dog is the object of bathe.

Ella se baña

She bathes herself. She (herself) is the object of bathe.

In both examples the verbs in Spanish follow the same conjugation. To make the action reflexive we need to use the reflexive pronouns. Pay attention that in Spanish the reflexive pronouns go before the conjugated verb for an action that one does to oneself.

When the object of the verb is the same person as the subject, you will need to use a reflexive pronoun that agrees with the subject of the verb in number (singular, plural) and in person (1st, 2nd, 3rd).

• Me baño. I bathe myself.
• Te bañas. You bathe yourself.
• Se baña. He/She/formal You bathe(s) himself/ herself/ yourself.
• Nos bañamos. We bathe ourselves.
• Os bañais. You wash yourselves.
• Se bañan. They wash themselves./You wash yourselves.

In the following chart, you will find the personal pronouns, the indirect object pronouns, the direct object pronouns and the reflexive pronouns for each one of the grammatical persons.

*Don’t forget to avoid an insult lelo, lela, lelos or lelas; we use “se” instead of the “le” or “les”.

Reflexive pronouns have almost the same forms as indirect and direct object pronouns except “se” is used for the third person. The reflexive pronoun will always be the same person (١st, ٢nd, ٣rd) and number (singular, plural) as the subject of the sentence.

You already know how to use the reflexive pronouns, only you did not know their name! Remember when you started studying Spanish and you learned one of the ways to introduce yourself?

You can add reflexive pronouns to almost any verbs in order to make them reflexive. As we studied before in Spanish many actions related to personal care or daily routines are reflexive. To help to identify the most common Spanish verbs that require a reflexive pronoun, you will see attached to the infinitive the pronoun “se”.

The reflexive pronoun corresponds to the same person as the verb ending. (Agreement)

In the examples above the reflexive pronouns are placed immediately before the conjugated verb. There are grammar structures when you can attach the reflexive pronoun to the unconjugated verb (infinitive), as we studied before with the indirect and direct object pronouns.

Unos ejemplos:

• Me voy a dormir. or Voy a dormirme.
• Me tengo que despertar. or Tengo que despertarme.
• Me debo despedir. or Debo despedirme.
• Me estoy bañando. or Estoy bañándome.*

* Remember the orthographic stress

The two options are correct, the meaning is the same.

In the next list you have verbs related to personal care or daily routines that require a reflexive pronoun. Most are regular in the indicative mood, in the present tense, which you have already learned.

Verbos relativos al cuidado personal o rutina diaria.

Complete the following sentences with the appropriate form of the indicated reflexive verb: lavarse, maquillarse, afeitarse, peinarse, despertarse (eàie).

1. Los domingos yo _____________ tarde (late).
2. Mi novio no _______________ porque a mí me gusta la barba (beard).
3. Ella _______________ el pelo con champú (shampoo).
4. Las actrices ___________ mucho.
5. Mi tío no _____________ porque no tiene pelo.

Write the following sentences a different way by changing the position of the reflexive pronoun, but without changing their meaning. You will move the placement of the reflexive pronouns according to the examples we have shown you in the lesson.

1. Voy a lavarme el pelo. ___________________________
2. Ella no tiene que maquillarse. _______________________
3. Pedro se va a afeitar. ____________________________
4. Tenéis que acostaros temprano. _____________________

Previously, we studied some irregular verbs related to the grammatical structures. We talked about verbs that always need a preposition and we studied “jugar a” as one of them. Also we already studied “acordarse de”. As you remember these grammatical structures help us express ourselves correctly. In this case the verb “acordar” without the preposition means: to agree; BUT with the preposition “de” the meaning changes “to remember” and remember it is also a verb that requires a reflexive pronoun: “ACORDARSE DE”. Now you have all the elements to practice this versatile verb. Now you know that when a Spanish verb in the infinitive has the letters “se” attached, it is showing that it is a verb that requires a reflexive pronoun.

TAREA: Write 10 sentences related to personal care or daily routines. Don’t forget to use the reflexive pronouns. Include when you do these activities or how often you do them to expand your skills. You will hand in your paper in the next class.

Evitando la redundancia por el uso de los pronombres de objeto directo e indirecto.

In all languages redundancy is not very accepted. When writing or speaking you should avoid redundancy. Languages have so many words that you can express similar thoughts using different words. This simple tactic will help you make your speech or your writing more pleasing.

In Spanish, as in English, writers frequently use pronouns to avoid redundancies using subject pronouns, direct object pronouns, indirect object pronouns and reflexive pronouns. As you recall the direct, indirect and reflexive pronouns only change in the third person.

The big difference between the three pronoun types is:

The direct object pronouns identify gender and number:

María escribe una carta.

• à María la escribe.
• à una carta: singular, femenino
• à la

María escribe unos emails.

• à María los escribe.
• à unos emails: plural, masculino
• à los

The indirect object pronouns identify only number:

María canta a su mamá.

• à María le canta.
• à a su mamá: singular
• à le

María canta a sus hermanos.

• à María les canta.
• à a sus hermanos: plural
• à les

The reflexive pronouns do not identify anything (no gender, no number), except that the subject receives the action or does the action to itself:

• María se ve.
• Paco se ducha.
• Ellos se saludan.

Remember the following rules:

Position

Before the conjugated verb or attached to the infinitive or gerund (if it exists):

Ella se baña.

Ella se tiene que bañar.

Ella tiene que bañarse.

NEVER:

Ella tiene se que bañar.

Ella tiene que se bañar.

Two pronouns

When we use two pronouns we always use first the indirect object pronoun and then the direct object pronoun.

José me lo debe regalar. ß Indirect + Direct

José debe regalármelo. ß Indirect + Direct

NEVER separate them:

José me debe regalarlo. ß keep the Indirect + Direct pronouns together

NEVER lelo, lelos, lela, lelas:

Lelo, lelos, lela, lelas are words that can be interpreted as an insult: stunned, slow, or loony. Always change the indirect object pronoun “le” or “les” for “se” to avoid this situation when there is a direct object pronoun beginning with “L”

Laura le la tiene que mandar à Laura se la tiene que mandar.

Laura tiene que mandárlela à Laura tiene que mandársela.

Number of words

Before the conjugated verb each pronoun is a word.

When they are attached to the infinitive or gerund, it is only one word that also needs an orthographic stress: comérselo.

Él se lo está dando. ß 2 words à se lo

Él está dándoselo. ß 1 word + orthographic stress

NEVER:

Él selo está dando.

Él está dando se lo.

In the following paragraph the redundancy was not avoided. Write the paragraph again using the different pronouns to correct the redundancy:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Spanish language has another peculiarity, because the conjugated verbs indicate the subject of the sentence in Spanish it is preferable to avoid the personal pronouns, except when we want to clarify or emphasize. In English it is the opposite. We need to indicate who the subject of the sentence is. In Spanish we know who the subject is by the conjugated verb. When we use the subject several times in the same paragraph, it can be interpreted as pretension.

The follow conversation has too much repetition, please fix the conversation making it more natural in the space after each sentence.

Federico: ¿Piensas comprarle un regalo a tu hermano para su cumpleaños?

Since this first sentence establishes the setting you don’t need to change anything.

Laura: Sí, el sábado, pienso comprarle un regalo a mi hermano para su cumpleaños.

_________________________________________

Federico: Pero tu hermano está viviendo en Madrid ahora ¿verdad?

________________________________________

Laura: Sí, mi hermano está viviendo en Madrid, yo pienso mandarle el regalo a mi hermano a Madrid.

________________________________________

Federico: ¡Mandar el regalo a tu hermano a Madrid va a costarte mucho dinero a ti!

_________________________________________

Laura: ¡Yo sé, pero es una sorpresa que yo quiero darle a mi hermano.

_________________________________________

Federico: ¡Caray! Tú debes de querer mucho a tu hermano.

_________________________________________

Laura: Mi hermano es mi mejor amigo, yo quiero mucho a mi hermano.

__________________________________________

Federico: Entonces tú sabes qué regalo vas a comprarle a tu hermano.

___________________________________________

Laura: ¡Claro! Voy a comprarle a mi hermano una tarjeta de regalo del Corte Inglés.

___________________________________________

Federico: ¿Dónde vas a comprar la tarjeta de regalo del Corte Inglés?

___________________________________________

Laura: Yo voy a comprar la tarjeta del Corte Inglés por internet.

___________________________________________

Federico: Entonces… ¿tú no vas a mandarle un regalo a tu hermano desde Estados Unidos?

__________________________________________

Laura: ¡Claro que yo no voy a mandarle un regalo desde E.U.A.! ¡Yo no tengo tanto dinero!

___________________________________________

You have just reviewed much of the present tense in the indicative mood in Spanish. Two verbs that need further explanation not regarding the conjugation, but rather, the reasons for use are Ser y Estar.