Reflexive verbs (verbos reflexivos)
A reflexive verb turns the action back on the person doing it: 'I get myself up', 'she dresses herself'. Portuguese marks that with a small pronoun — me, se, nos — and most of the morning runs on these verbs: levantar-se (to get up), deitar-se (to go to bed), vestir-se (to get dressed), lavar-se (to wash up), sentir-se (to feel), plus chamar-se from lesson 10. Dictionaries hang the -se on the end, but in Brazil the pronoun lives in front of the verb: Me levanto às sete.
The pronouns
me = myself. se = himself, herself, themselves — and, crucially, yourself when you're speaking to você. nos = ourselves. That's the whole working set. te exists and you'll hear it in casual speech (Te ligo amanhã is everywhere), but the reflexive that's right in every state and every register with você is se: Você se levanta cedo? There is no vos here — for a group it's se again: vocês se levantam. These are the same little words you met as object pronouns in lessons 13 and 14; what makes them reflexive is the verb they're attached to, not a different spelling.
Conjugating a reflexive verb — levantar-se
Drop the -se, conjugate the verb as usual, and stand the pronoun in front of it. eu me levanto = I get up. você se levanta / ele se levanta / ela se levanta = you get up, he/she gets up. nós nos levantamos = we get up — yes, two nos in a row, and that's exactly right. vocês se levantam / eles se levantam / elas se levantam. In conversation a gente se levanta quietly replaces nós nos levantamos. Four verb forms, three pronouns, and the same skeleton fits any reflexive -ar, -er or -ir verb: me deito, se veste, nos lavamos, se sentem.
Placement — same triggers as before
Brazil makes this easy: the pronoun goes BEFORE the verb, and opening a sentence with it is completely normal. Me levanto às sete. Me sinto bem. Negation and question words change nothing, because the pronoun was already in front: Não me levanto cedo. Quando você se deita? With two verbs the pronoun slides between them: Vou me deitar cedo. Estou me vestindo. (Books from Portugal hook the pronoun onto the end with a hyphen — levanto-me, veste-se — and then list the words that pull it back in front. You'll read that spelling in European texts; you don't have to write it.)
Reflexive vs non-reflexive — same verb, different meaning
Several verbs work both ways, and the pronoun is the switch. lavar = to wash something else: Lavo o carro = I wash the car. lavar-se = to wash yourself: Me lavo. vestir = to dress somebody: A mãe veste o bebê. vestir-se = to get dressed: Me visto — watch the eu form, visto with an i. chamar = to call somebody: Chama o Pedro! chamar-se = to be named: Me chamo Ana. Same verb, one small pronoun, and the action comes home to the subject.
The daily routine — putting it together
Now string a day together: Me levanto às sete da manhã. Me lavo, escovo os dentes e me visto. Tomo café da manhã e vou trabalhar. Almoço ao meio-dia. À noite janto, descanso um pouco e me deito às onze. Three meals to keep straight: o café da manhã (breakfast — literally 'morning coffee'; Portugal calls it pequeno-almoço), o almoço (lunch, the verb almoçar came up in lesson 8) and o jantar (dinner, from lesson 9). And the teeth: in Brazil you brush them — escovar os dentes — you don't wash them.
The reflexive that vanishes
In everyday Brazilian speech the pronoun often just falls off verbs of routine and motion: Levanto cedo, Deito tarde, A gente levanta às seis. Nobody blinks, and you'll hear it constantly. Two cautions. First, it doesn't happen with every verb — sentir-se keeps its pronoun (Me sinto bem, never Sinto bem), and so does chamar-se. Second, the full version is never wrong: Me levanto cedo is correct, natural and safe in writing. Say it with the pronoun, and let your ear collect the shorter version.
