Pronominal verbs

You’ll have noticed that most conjugated verbs in French are made up of a word like je or il (called a subject pronoun) and a verb - for example je donne meaning I give.

With some verbs, however, there’s an extra word between the subject and verb – je me lève, je m’appelle. This word is called a reflexive pronoun, and the type of verb is called a pronominal verb (or sometimes a reflexive verb).

Reflexive pronouns are the equivalent of words like myself or yourself in English. Most pronominal verbs in French you can translate literally, just to get a sense of what they mean. Take for example je m’appelle. This literally means I call myself but is more properly translated I’m called.

The reflexive pronouns are me, te, se, nous and vous. They’re used as follows:

Here are some examples:

Je me lève à sept heures

I get up at seven o’clock

Elle se souvient de leur adresse

She remembers their address

When pronominal verbs are used in commands, then the reflexive pronoun comes after the verb. Notice that te becomes toi:

Je m'assieds  →   Asseyez-vous!

I sit down - Sit down!

Tu te réveilles   →   Réveille-toi!

You wake up - Wake up!