Language/French/Grammar/Pronominal-verbs-without-a-reflexive-interpretation

Pronominal verbs without a reflexive interpretation

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What is a Reflexive Pronominal Verbs?

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

• Tu te laves.

You wash yourself.

What are pronominal verbs without a reflexive interpretation ?

Some verbs include a pronoun but it is impossible to see in what way they can be assigned a reflexive interpretation.

For example:

• s'abstenir,
• s'en aller,
• se douter,
• s'enfuir,
• se repentir,
• s'évanouir,
• se taire...

• Tu t'abstiendras de faire un commentaire

You will refrain from making a comment

• Tu t'es toujours douté qu'elle n'était pas fiable

You always guessed he would let her down

• Ils restent encore ce matin mais ils partent cet après-midi

They are still staying this morning but they are leaving this afternoon

• A la vue de l'accident, elle s'est évanouie

At the sight of the accident, she passed out

• Elle s'est toujours repentie de ces fautes

She always repented of these faults

• Il s'est tu pour protéger sa petite amie

He kept quiet to protect his girlfriend

Common pronominal without a reflexive interpretation

French	Translation
s'accouder au comptoir	lean on the counter
s'abstenir de tout commentaire	refrain from making any comment
s'accroupir derrière	crouch behind
s'accoutumer à conduire	get used to driving
s'affaiblir	get weaker
s'agenouiller près de quelqu'un	kneel down next to someone
s'affaisser/s'affaler/s'écrouler par terre	collapse on the ground
s'amuser	have fun
s'apercevoir de quelque chose	notice something
s'appeler Durant	be called Durant
s'approcher de quelqu'un	approach somebody
s'arrêter au feu	stop at the light
s'appuyer au rebord de la fenêtre	lean on the windowsill
s'assoupir au volant	doze off at the wheel
s'asseoir dans un fauteuil	sit in an armchair
s'avancer vers la plage	advance towards the beach
se blottir contre quelqu'un	cuddle up to someone
se briser/se casser en miettes	break into pieces
se charger d'un travail	take on a job
se contenter d'une carrière médiocre	make do with a mediocre career
mal se comporter	behave badly
se coucher tard	go to bed late
bien se comporter	behave
se dépêcher de faire quelque chose	hurry to do something
se déshabiller	get undressed
se distinguer par son apparence	stand out by one's look
se diriger vers un endroit	go to a place
se douter de quelque chose	suspect something
s'évader de prison	escape from prison
se dresser contre une injustice	protest against an injustice
s'écarter du droit chemin	deviate from the right path

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