Spanish Reflexive Verbs: List, Pronouns and Meanings

A reflexive verb is one whose action loops back to the subject. English says "I wash myself" with a separate word, and mostly does not bother at all ("I got up", not "I got myself up"). Spanish builds the loop into the verb with a small pronoun that is not optional: me levanto (I get up), se llama Ana (she is called Ana).

This page is the what and the which: the pronoun chart, a list of 30 common reflexive verbs, where the pronoun goes, and the verbs whose meaning changes when they turn reflexive. For the full present-tense tables (regular -ar, -er and -ir reflexives plus the stem-changers), see conjugating Spanish reflexive verbs in the present tense.

Spanish reflexive pronouns chart

The dictionary form ends in -se: levantarse, llamarse, sentarse. When you conjugate, the -se detaches and becomes the pronoun that matches the subject, placed before the verb.

Two things to notice. se covers five subjects (he, she, formal you, they, plural you), so the verb ending does the sorting. And os is Spain only: Latin America uses ustedes for every plural you, so the pronoun there is se.

The verb underneath conjugates exactly as it would without the pronoun. If you can conjugate levantar, you can conjugate levantarse.

List of 30 common Spanish reflexive verbs

These are the reflexives that turn up constantly in everyday speech, roughly in the order a learner meets them. Stem changes are marked, because the pronoun does nothing to stop them: see Spanish stem-changing verbs for the boot pattern.

In Latin America enojarse is the usual word for getting angry; enfadarse is understood but sounds Spanish.

Word pages with full conjugations exist for most of these, including acostarse, vestirse, sentarse, irse, quedarse, sentirse, acordarse and reírse.

Where the reflexive pronoun goes

Exactly the same rule as for direct and indirect object pronouns, which is no coincidence: a reflexive pronoun is an object pronoun that happens to point back at the subject.

• Before a conjugated verb: me levanto, te llamas, se viste. Also before a negative command: no te levantes (don't get up).
• Attached to an infinitive: quiero levantarme (I want to get up). Also correct: me quiero levantar.
• Attached to a gerund: estoy duchándome (I'm having a shower). Also correct: me estoy duchando.
• Attached to an affirmative command: ¡siéntate! (sit down!), ¡levántate! (get up!), ¡levántese! (usted).

With an infinitive or a gerund you get the choice; with an affirmative command the pronoun must be attached, and with a plain conjugated verb it must come first.

The written accent on duchándome, levantándose and levántate is not decoration. Adding a syllable pushes the stressed syllable to third from the end, and Spanish marks that with an accent so the stress stays where it was. The infinitive needs no accent (levantarme), because its stressed syllable, the last one, only becomes the second-to-last, which needs no mark.

Two command spellings catch everyone: nosotros commands drop their final -s before nos (sentemos + nos becomes sentémonos, let's sit down), and vosotros commands drop their final -d before os (sentad + os becomes sentaos, sit down, you lot). The Spanish imperative page has the full command chart.

Verbs that change meaning when reflexive

Many reflexives are just "do it to yourself" versions of an ordinary verb. Lavo el coche (I wash the car) becomes me lavo (I wash myself); despierto a los niños (I wake the children) becomes me despierto (I wake up). The subject acts on itself instead of something else, and the meaning of the verb stays the same.

A second group changes meaning outright. These are the ones worth learning as pairs:

Pongo la mesa is "I lay the table". Se puso rojo is "he went red", and that "become" meaning of ponerse is one of several Spanish ways of saying "to become": see verbs of becoming in Spanish. Quedar also means "to be left" (quedan dos, there are two left), and quedarse con means "to keep": me quedo con este (I'll take this one).

Reciprocal use: nos vemos

With a plural subject, the plural pronouns nos, os and se can also mean "each other": nos vemos mañana (we'll see each other tomorrow), se quieren (they love each other). Context usually decides between "themselves" and "each other", and Spanish has two small add-ons for when it does not. The full treatment is on Spanish reciprocal verbs.

Other jobs for se

Not every se is reflexive. Se me cayó el vaso (I dropped the glass) is the no-fault construction for accidents, covered in the accidental se in Spanish. Se habla español (Spanish is spoken) is the passive se. And se lo doy (I give it to him) is a plain indirect-object le in disguise, explained under pronoun order. If the sentence does not make sense as "to oneself", it is probably one of these.

Worked examples

• Me llamo Michael. (My name is Michael.)
• ¿A qué hora te levantas? (What time do you get up?)
• Se acuesta tarde todos los días. (He goes to bed late every day.)
• Quiero ducharme antes de salir. (I want to shower before going out.)
• Siéntate, por favor. (Sit down, please.)
• No me siento bien. (I don't feel well.)
• Me voy, que es tarde. (I'm off, it's late.)
• ¿Te acuerdas de mí? (Do you remember me?)

Common mistakes English speakers make

The biggest one is dropping the pronoun because English does not use one: levanto a las siete instead of me levanto a las siete. Without the pronoun, levanto means "I lift", and the listener waits to hear what you lifted.

The second is leaving the pronoun as se on an infinitive: quiero levantarse is wrong, because the pronoun still has to match the subject. It is quiero levantarme, quieres levantarte, queremos levantarnos.

The third is using a possessive with body parts and clothes: me lavo las manos (I wash my hands), not "me lavo mis manos". The reflexive pronoun already says whose hands they are.

The fourth is mixing up siento and me siento. Siento is "I feel" something or "I'm sorry" (lo siento); me siento is "I feel" a state (me siento bien) and also "I sit down", from sentarse. Context sorts it, but only if the pronoun is there.

See also

• Conjugating Spanish reflexive verbs in the present tense has the full tables for -ar, -er, -ir and stem-changing reflexives.
• Spanish stem-changing verbs explains the o>ue, e>ie and e>i changes in acostarse, despertarse and vestirse.
• Spanish reciprocal verbs covers the "each other" use of nos, os and se.
• The intermediate Spanish grammar overview shows where reflexives sit in the B1-B2 system.