Norton's Spanish Basics: Audio Podcast

In Spanish, much like English or any language, we often do things to ourselves: I bathe myself. I wake myself up. She hurts herself. He cut himself. We dress ourselves. We call these actions (verbs) “reflexive”. Reflexive verbs must be used with a reflexive pronoun in order to indicate that the subject is performing the action of the verb upon itself. Reflexive verbs exist in English, but they are much more common in Spanish. Reflexive verbs usually have to do with parts of the body, clothing, or one's state of mind. You can recognize reflexive verbs by the "se" tacked on to the infinitive. Here are some common reflexive verbs:   aburrirse to get bored acostarse to go to bed afeitarse to shave (oneself) animarse to cheer (oneself) up arreglarse to get (oneself) ready bañarse to bathe (oneself) calmarse to calm (oneself) down caerse to fall (down) cansarse to