Well, the long daunting french reflexive pronouns/verbs that have been going through my head for about a week now are still pretty fuzzy. I ran across them in the verb book I bought called 601 French Verbs, which is published by Berlitz, and only cost around $16 dollars. I know all of them:
Me, Te, Se *for 3rd person plural as well*, Nous, and Vous. They are to French what possessive adjectives are to English. In addition to that they are placed before the conjugated verb form, though in the infinitive of a reflexive verb the reflexive pronoun precedes the infinitive (example: Je vais me laver:: I am going to wash myself)....Say whaattt?! Yep I froze confused right there.
Other than that they can also be used (according to Berlitz) to:
• Distinguish between to verbs w/ different meanings.
Example: Ma fille dort beaucoup and Ma fille s'endort à sept heurs.
Okay so I sort of get it, then we move on to the confusing part.
• To express recipricol action when the subject is plural:
Example: Les deux amis se parlent souvent--The two friends talk to each other often.
Me:........:crickets:........okay I understand point #1 but #2,yeahhhhh, no.
The most confusing part finally here!
• To express an impersonal situation in the third person:
Example: Comment ça s'écrit?; Cela ne se fait pas, both of these means How do you spell that? and That is not done.
Blehhh, French reflexive pronouns D:
I do find it helpful though how most french verbs are reflexive like:
s'endormir (to fall asleep), s'appeler (to call oneself), se munir (to provide oneself).
My question to ANYONE out there is this: Is 'se' used in all reflexive verbs even when conjugated? Like Je me laver, I'm guessing its infinitive was se laver, which means the reflexive pronoun changes when conjugated? Confusing? Haha, but hey I guess that's what I get for trying to study French on my own for now!
