Reflexive verbs

Corso d'italiano A1.1, Unità 3, Grammatica

Reflexive verbs (it. verbi riflessivi) are composed of a reflexive pronoun and a verb, like mi lavo I wash myself. Let’s learn the reflexive verbs in Italian!

Reflexive verbs in Italian

Reflexive verbs express an action that refers to the subject, such as: mi lavo I wash myself. They consist of a verb and a pronoun, namely a reflexive pronoun. In the infinitive, the reflexive pronoun si is placed at the end of the verb, which loses the -e of the infinitive:

ARE	ERE	IRE
lavarsi to wash yourself	sedersi to sit down	divertirsi to have fun

The structure of Italian reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs behave like non-reflexive verbs. You only have to conjugate the verb as usual and put the reflexive pronoun before the verb: mi lavo. The negative non is placed before the reflexive pronoun: non mi lavo. Note that many reflexive verbs in Italian are not reflexive in English, like vestirsi to get dressed.

REFLEXIVE PRONOUN + VERB

	LAVARSI
io	mi lavo
tu	ti lavi
lui, lei	si lava
noi	ci laviamo
voi	vi lavate
loro	si lavano

Common reflexive verbs

Svegliarsi e alzarsi

Svegliarsi to wake up and alzarsi to stand up are useful verbs to describe your daily routine. A trick to not mix them up? You should know that la sveglia is the alarm. So you’ll ti svegli when la sveglia rings!

	SVEGLIARSI	ALZARSI
io	mi sveglio	mi alzo
tu	ti svegli	ti alzi
lui, lei	si sveglia	si alza
noi	ci svegliamo	ci alziamo
voi	vi svegliate	vi alzate
loro	si svegliano	si alzano

Prepararsi, lavarsi, vestirsi e rilassarsi

Prepararsi to get ready, lavarsi to wash yourself, vestirsi to get dressed and rilassarsi to relax are also four common verbs you’ll need to describe your daily routine.

	PREPARARSI	LAVARSI
io	mi preparo	mi lavo
tu	ti prepari	ti lavi
lui, lei	si prepara	si lava
noi	ci prepariamo	ci laviamo
voi	vi preparate	vi lavate
loro	si preparano	si lavano

	VESTIRSI	RILASSARSI
io	mi vesto	mi rilasso
tu	ti vesti	ti rilassi
lui, lei	si veste	si rilassa
noi	ci vestiamo	ci rilassiamo
voi	vi vestite	vi rilassate
loro	si vestono	si rilassano

Incontrarsi, divertirsi, addormentarsi e chiamarsi

Four other important reflexive verbs are incontrarsi (con) to meet up (with), divertirsi to have fun, addormentarsi to fall asleep and chiamarsi to be called (my name is…).

	INCONTRARSI	DIVERTIRSI
io	mi incontro	mi diverto
tu	ti incontri	ti diverti
lui, lei	si incontra	si diverte
noi	ci incontriamo	ci divertiamo
voi	vi incontrate	vi divertite
loro	si incontrano	si divertono

	ADDORMENTARSI	CHIAMARSI
io	mi addormento	mi chiamo
tu	ti addormenti	ti chiami
lui, lei	si addormenta	si chiama
noi	ci addormentiamo	ci chiamiamo
voi	vi addormentate	vi chiamate
loro	si addormentano	si chiamano

What are actually reflexive verbs?

Reflexive verbs express an action that refers to the subject. The reflexive pronoun represents either the direct object (chi? who?) or the indirect object (a chi? to whom?) of the sentence. The subject and the object are the same person.

Mi lavo.	I wash myself.	Who do I wash? Myself.
Mi lavo le mani.	I wash my hands.	To whom do I wash the hands? To myself.

They can also have mutual value:

Ci vediamo domani.

We see us tomorrow.

I see you and you see me.

In some of these verbs, like addormentarsi to fall asleep, the pronoun represents neither the direct nor the indirect object (I fall myself asleep?!). In fact, these are not reflexive verbs, but are called pronominal verbs. But since pronominal verbs behave exactly like reflexive verbs, they are simply learned together.

Mi mangio un panino

In the spoken language it often happens that Italians transform verbs like mangiare or guardare, which are not reflexive, into reflexive verbs. The use of the reflexive pronoun makes the sentence more personal and colloquial.