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

Pronominal verbs used reflexively

[CHANGED]

Describe something that the subject does to himself

When pronominal verbs are used to describe something which the subject does to himself, they must be 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

The reflexive pronoun is 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: Direct or Indirect object

The pronoun itself can be the indirect or the direct object:

The reflexive pronoun is the indirect object

If the verb in its nonpronominal form is indirectly transitive, the pronoun will be an indirect object. For example, "parler (parler à quelqu'un)" takes an indirect object, eg. "parler à un ami". So in "Je me parle" the pronoun is indirect.

French	Translation
Il se parle constamment (à lui-même) en allant travailler	He talks to himself constantly on his way to work
Lorsqu'on répête un secret à quelqu'un on ne peut que se nuire	When you tell someone a secret you can only harm yourself
Tu devras t'achèter un nouveau pull car celui-ci est fichu	You will have to buy yourself a new sweater because this one is ruined
Je me reproche (à moi-même) ces sentiments	I blame myself for these feelings
Je me jure de continuer à travailler même après la retraite	I swear to myself to continue working even after retirement
Il faut bien s'admettre que la situation est grave mais pas désespérée	We have to admit that the situation is serious but not hopeless
Jean se cache la vérité (à lui même)	John is hiding the truth to himself

The reflexive pronoun is the direct object

If the verb in its nonpronominal form is directly transitive, the pronoun will be a direct object. For instance, "laver" takes a direct object: "laver la voiture". So in "Je me lave" the pronoun is direct.

French	Translation
Il se lave sans savon	It washes without soap
Elle se coiffe pendant des heures	She spends hours doing his hair
Il est maladroit et se blesse souvent	He is clumsy and often injures himself
Tu vas te baigner souvent ?	Do you go swimming often?
Jean s'habille comme un prince	Jean dresses like a prince
Patrick s'alimente très sainement	Patrick eats very healthily
John se cache derrière sa casquette	John is hiding behind his cap

The difference between indirect object & direct object reflexives is obvious from the last example:

1. Jean se cache la vérité
2. John se cache derrière sa casquette

In the second example the se is the person who is hidden: "John cache John derrière sa casquette". In the second example it is "la vérité" which is hidden and the se is the indirect object: "Jean cache la vérité à Jean".

➡ These differences are important with regard to the tuning of the 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