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'abstenir de tout commentaire	to refrain from making any comment
s'accouder au parapet	to lean on one's elbows on the parapet
s'accoutumer à conduire la nuit	to get used to driving at night
s'accroupir derrière un arbre	to crouch behind a tree
s'affaiblir lentement	to get slowly weaker
s'affaisser/s'affaler/s'écrouler par terre	to collapse on the ground
s'agenouiller près de quelqu'un	to kneel down next to somebody
s'amuser en vacances	to have fun on holiday
s'apercevoir de qch	to notice something
s'appeler Dupont	to be called Dupont
s'approcher de qn	to approach somebody
s'appuyer au rebord de la fenêtre	to lean on the windowsill
s'arrêter aux feux	to stop at the lights
s'asseoir dans un fauteuil	to sit down in an armchair
s'assoupir au volant	to doze off at the wheel
s'avancer vers la montagne	to advance towards the mountain
se blottir contre sa mère	to cuddle up to one's mother
se briser/se casser en miettes	to break into pieces
se charger d'une tâche	to take on a task
se comporter mal	to behave badly
se contenter d'une carrière médiocre	to make do with a mediocre career
se coucher tôt	to go to bed early
se dépêcher de poser sa candidature	to hurry to apply for the job
se déshabiller dans le noir	to get undressed in the dark
se diriger vers la maison	to go towards the house
se distinguer par son intelligence	to stand out by one's intelligence
se douter de qc	to suspect something
se dresser contre une injustice	to protest against an injustice
s'écarter du chemin	to stray from the track
s'échapper/s'évader d'une prison	to escape from a prison
s'écouler vite	to pass quickly (of time)
s'écrier	to shout, exclaim
s'éloigner de la ville	to move away from the town
s'emparer de son adversaire	to get hold of one's opponent
s'en aller ailleurs	to go away somewhere else
s'endormir dans la voiture	to go to sleep in the car
s'enfuir dans les bois	to flee into the woods
s'ennuyer à la campagne	to become bored in the country
s'enquérir auprès de l'ambassade	to enquire at the Embassy
s'étonner de la vitesse de la voiture	to be surprised at the speed of the car
s'évanouir	to faint
se fâcher de qc	to get annoyed at something
se fatiguer facilement	to get easily tired
se fermer doucement	to close gently
se fier à ses collègues	to trust one's colleagues
s'habiller en tenue de soirée	to wear evening dress
s'habituer à un nouvel emploi	to get used to a new job
s'intéresser au latin	to be interested in Latin
se lever tard	to get up late
se méfier de la police	to distrust the police
se mêler à la conversation	to join in the conversation
se mettre debout	to stand up
se moquer de qn	to make fun of somebody
se nourrir de pain	to live on bread
s'occuper de ses enfants	to look after one's children
se passer de cigarettes	to go without cigarettes
se plaindre du temps	to complain about the weather
se rappeler une amie	to remember a friend
se raviser brusquement	to change one's mind suddenly
se réfugier sous les arbres	to take refuge under the trees
se repentir de ses paroles	to regret one's words
se retourner	to turn around
se réunir le dimanche	to meet on Sundays
se réveiller	to wake up
se servir d'une scie	to use a saw
se soucier de la santé de qn	to worry about somebody's health
se souvenir d'une amie	to remember a friend
se taire	to keep quiet
se tenir droit	to stand straight
se tromper	to be wrong

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