Language/French/Grammar/Pronominal-verbs-used-reflexively

Pronominal verbs used reflexively

Pronominal verbs used reflexively

When pronominal verbs are used to describe something which the subject does to herself, himself, themselves, etc., they are being used reflexively:

French	Translation
Je me vois dans la glace	I can see myself in the mirror
Je me déteste	I hate myself
Il s'est fait mal	He hurt himself
Elle s'était cassé la jambe	She had broken her leg

No form of –self / reflexive pronoun always required

Note that English translations of pronominal verbs used reflexively do not always require a form of -self. In French, however, the reflexive pronoun is always required:

French	Translation
le me lave	I am washing (myself)
Il se rase	He is shaving (himself)
Il s'est roulé par terre	He rolled (himself) on the ground

Pronoun being the direct or indirect object

The pronoun itself may be the direct or indirect object of the verb. If the verb in its non-pronominal form is directly transitive, the pronoun will be a direct object. If the verb in its non-pronominal form is indirectly transitive, the pronoun will be an indirect object pronoun. For example, laver takes a direct object: laver la voiture. Therefore in Je me lave the pronoun is direct. But parler (parler à qn) takes an indirect object, e.g. parler à une amie. Therefore in Je me parle the pronoun is indirect.

The reflexive pronoun is the direct object

French	Translation
Je me lave à l'eau froide	I wash in cold water
Elle est maladroite et se blesse fréquemment	She is clumsy and often injures herself
Il se coiffe pendant des heures	He spends hours doing his hair
Tu te baignes tous les jours?	Do you have a swim every day?
Suzanne s'habille très mal	Suzanne dresses very badly
Jean-Pierre se nourrit très bien	Jean-Pierre has a healthy diet
Marianne se cache dans l'armoire	Marianne is hiding in the cupboard

The reflexive pronoun is the indirect object

French	Translation
Je me parle constamment en me promenant	I constantly talk to myself when I go for a walk
En répétant des confidences on ne peut que se nuire	By repeating secrets you only succeed in doing yourself harm
Tu t'achèteras un nouveau blouson pour la rentrée	You'll buy yourself a new jacket to go back to school
Je me reproche ces bêtises	I feel bad about this foolishness
Je me jure de continuer à travailler	I promise myself that I will continue to work
Il faut bien s'admettre la vérité	We just have to accept the truth
Marianne se cache la vérité	Marianne is hiding the truth from herself

The difference between direct object reflexives and indirect object reflexives is clear from the last example in each set:

1. Marianne se cache dans l'armoire
2. Marianne se cache la vérité

In the first example the se is the person who is hidden: Marianne cache Marianne dans l'armoire. In the second example it is la vérité which is hidden and the se is the indirect object: Marianne cache la vérité à Marianne. These differences are significant when it comes to past participle agreement.

Used pronominally as reflexives

Many ordinarily directly transitive, indirectly transitive and ditransitive verbs can be used pronominally as reflexives, for example:

• II critique son patron II se critique

He criticizes his boss He criticizes himself

• Je juge le prisonnier coupable Je me juge coupable

I consider the prisoner guilty I consider myself guilty

• Elle regarde son amie Elle se regarde

She is looking at her girlfriend She is looking at herself

• Tu offres un cadeau à Philippe Tu t'offres un cadeau

You are giving a present to Philip You are giving a present to yourself

• II parle à sa mère II se parle

He's talking to his mother He's talking to himself

• Elle cache la vérité à son mari Elle se cache la vérité

She is hiding the truth from her husband She is hiding the truth from herself

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds