Reflexive verbs

Right now: what a reflexive verb is

ShortcutThe pronoun of a reflexive verb is not decoration, it is part of the verb. Drop it and the sentence does not turn wrong — it means something else.

A verb is reflexive when the action comes back to the subject. English often leaves this invisible (“I washed”, “I got dressed”). German says it out loud, with a separate word:

• Ich wasche das Auto. I’m washing the car. OBJECT IS SOMEONE ELSE · NOT REFLEXIVE
• Ich wasche mich. I’m washing (myself). OBJECT IS ME · REFLEXIVE
• Ich wasche mir die Hände. I’m washing my hands. HANDS ARE THE OBJECT · “TO ME” DATIVE

The verb is the same in all three sentences: waschen. The only thing that changes is who the object is. English lets context do the work (“I wash” / “I wash the car”); German uses a pronoun.

You already half-do this in English

English hides the reflexive in phrases like “get dressed”, “get ready” or “wash up”, and uses “-self” only when it needs to (“introduce myself”). Many of those same verbs are reflexive in German:

The pronoun table — one difference in three places

Reflexive pronouns are the object pronouns you already know. Only third person singular, third person plural and Sie get their own word: sich.

How do you make that decision? One question: is there another object in the sentence?

• Ich wasche mich. I’m washing (myself). NO OTHER OBJECT → ACCUSATIVE · MICH
• Ich wasche mir die Hände. I’m washing my hands. OBJECT “DIE HÄNDE” → DATIVE · MIR
• Ich ziehe mich an. I’m getting dressed. NO OTHER OBJECT → MICH
• Ich ziehe mir den Mantel an. I’m putting on my coat. OBJECT “DEN MANTEL” → MIR

The rule in one sentence: whoever takes the object’s place is the Accusative. If you are the object, it is mich; if something else is the object, you slide into the Dative — mir. With body parts it almost always comes out Dative.

Verbs that are not reflexive in English — the part you memorise

This group is hard because English gives you no signal. You say “I’m happy” — there is no “I happy myself” — but German requires the pronoun. These you simply learn.

Fixed prepositions: freuen “auf” or “über”?

Most reflexive verbs come with a specific preposition, and that preposition picks the case. Learners tend to skip this part and then get stuck when building sentences.

When these prepositions are used with a pronoun, they fuse into darauf · darüber · dafür: Ich freue mich darauf. The fusion rule is explained in detail on the pronouns page.

uns / euch can also mean “each other”

With plural persons, the same pronoun can carry two different meanings. German calls the second one reziprok (reciprocal); English says “each other” or “one another”.

If there is any doubt, German adds einander to make it clear — but in everyday speech the context is enough and nobody adds it.

What to do this week

Reflexive verbs stick best when you describe a daily routine, because your whole morning is made of them. A five-sentence exercise:

• Write your morning routine in order: Ich wache auf. Ich wasche mich. Ich putze mir die Zähne. Ich ziehe mich an. Ich beeile mich.
• Repeat the same list with er — every pronoun becomes sich.
• Repeat the same list with wir — all of them become uns.
• Build three of the “not reflexive in English” verbs about your own life: Ich freue mich auf… · Ich interessiere mich für… · Ich ärgere mich über…
• Whenever you learn a new reflexive verb, write it in your notebook always with “sich” and its preposition: sich freuen auf + A.

Next up is Präteritum: when you need to put these sentences into the past, you will meet war · hatte · konnte.