Language/French/Grammar/Reflexive-and-reciprocal-verbs

Reflexive and reciprocal verbs

Reflexive pronominal verb

A reflexive pronominal verb expresses an action that the subject does on himself:

• Tu te laves.

You wash yourself.

Reciprocal pronominal verb

The reciprocal pronominal verb expresses an action both accomplished and received by each of the actors in the action.

• Toutes les étudiants se sont regardés.

All the students looked at each other.

Note

Not all pronominal verbs are necessarily reflective or reciprocal. There is : - Essentially pronominal verbs like: se souvenir, s'abstenir, s'en aller ... (to remember, to abstain, to go away ...) -Passive pronominal verbs such as: se fabriquer, se faire, se vendre .... (to build, to make, to sell ...) -Active verbs that change meaning in the pronominal form, such as: s'attraquer à, se passer de ... (to tackle, to do without ...)