Verbos pronominais: reflexivos, recíprocos e idiomáticos
Some verbs come with a pronoun built in — me, se, nos — and the pronoun is part of the verb, not decoration. Three families. REFLEXIVE: the subject acts on itself — lavar-se, levantar-se, vestir-se. RECIPROCAL: two or more people act on each other — encontrar-se, abraçar-se, cumprimentar-se. IDIOMATIC: the pronoun is simply part of the word, with no 'self' in sight — lembrar-se de, esquecer-se de, queixar-se de, atrever-se a, arrepender-se de. Dictionaries list them with the -se stuck on the end, but that is only the citation form. In Brazil the pronoun lives in FRONT of the verb, and starting a sentence with it is completely normal: Me levanto às sete. Você se lembra de mim? A gente se encontra amanhã.
Reflexive verbs — subject acts on itself
The pronoun matches the subject and means 'myself, yourself, himself'. The Brazilian set is short, because there is no tu row to learn: eu me lavo, você se lava, ele se lava / ela se lava, a gente se lava, nós nos lavamos, vocês se lavam, eles se lavam. Notice two things. você and a gente both take se, because both are grammatically third person — that single fact removes half the work. And nós takes nos with the verb fully spelled out: nós nos lavamos, nós nos encontramos. (Portugal writes lavamo-nos, dropping the final s of the verb; you may see it in books printed there, but Brazilian Portuguese does not do that.) The everyday reflexives: levantar-se (to get up), deitar-se (to lie down, to go to bed), sentar-se (to sit down), vestir-se (to get dressed), arrumar-se (to get ready — very Brazilian), pentear-se (to comb your hair), barbear-se (to shave), chamar-se (to be named, literally 'to call oneself'). Most of them also exist without the pronoun, with a direct object instead: lavar o carro vs. lavar-se, vestir o casaco vs. vestir-se. A whole group of them marks a CHANGE OF STATE: cansar-se (to get tired), assustar-se (to get scared), divertir-se (to have fun), apaixonar-se por (to fall in love with), machucar-se (to hurt yourself, physically), magoar-se (to get hurt, in the feelings).
Reciprocal verbs — each other
When two or more people do something to each other, the same pronoun means 'each other'. A gente se encontra no café = we meet (each other) at the cafe. Eles se abraçaram = they hugged. Eles se conhecem há anos = they've known each other for years. Se cumprimentaram e foram embora = they greeted each other and left. Because a gente carries the everyday 'we' in Brazil, the pronoun you'll say most often is se, not nos: a gente se vê amanhã = see you tomorrow, one of the most-used goodbyes in the country. Keep nos for the written nós: nós nos vemos amanhã. When it isn't obvious whether each person acted on themselves or on the other, add a phrase: um ao outro, uma à outra, uns aos outros, or mutuamente. Eles se ajudam mutuamente = they help each other. Compare Eles se cortaram (ambiguous) with Eles se cortaram um ao outro (clearly each other). Frequent reciprocals: encontrar-se, conhecer-se, ver-se, falar-se (to be on speaking terms — eles não se falam = they're not speaking), odiar-se, amar-se, and the very Brazilian dar-se bem com: A gente se dá bem = we get along.
Idiomatic pronominal verbs — the pronoun is just there
In this third family there's no reflexive logic at all — the pronoun simply belongs to the verb, and each verb also fixes its own preposition. Learn the whole package as one unit. lembrar-se de (to remember): Você se lembra dele? esquecer-se de (to forget): Me esqueci das chaves. queixar-se de (to complain about): Ela se queixou do barulho. rir-se de (to laugh at, mockingly): Riram-se de mim in writing. atrever-se a (to dare to): Não me atrevi a perguntar. arrepender-se de (to regret): Me arrependo de ter ido. referir-se a (to refer to): Me refiro ao livro. ir-se embora (to leave): Vou embora. tornar-se (to become): Se tornou médico. Now the honest Brazilian footnote: with several of these, everyday speech quietly drops the pronoun. Eu lembro do prazo, Esqueci as chaves, Ele riu de mim, Vou embora are what you'll hear from São Paulo to Belém, and nobody blinks. The full pronominal forms are what careful writing, journalism and exams expect — so learn both, and keep the pronoun when you write. What you can never drop is the preposition, so store each verb with it attached: lembrar-se de, esquecer-se de, queixar-se de, rir-se de, arrepender-se de, atrever-se a, referir-se a, apaixonar-se por.
Pronoun placement — próclise, the Brazilian default (recap from lesson 31)
Lesson 31 gave you the map; here it is again with pronominal verbs in it. In Brazil the pronoun goes BEFORE the verb, with no hyphen, and that includes the first word of a sentence: Me levanto às sete. Se lembra de mim? Te falo depois. School grammar prefers you not to open with a clitic, and a Portuguese speaker would say Levanto-me às sete — but Brazilian speech, song lyrics and most modern Brazilian prose put the pronoun in front and move on. Every classic trigger pushes it in front anyway, so you rarely have to think: negation — Não me lembro, Nunca se queixou; conjunctions — Disse que se sentia mal; relatives — a pessoa que se queixou; question words — Como você se chama?; adverbs like já and sempre — Já me arrumei, Sempre se atrevia a falar. With two verbs together, the pronoun sits between them, in front of the infinitive or the gerund: Vou me levantar, Preciso me arrumar, Estou me sentindo melhor, Tenho me lembrado dele. Enclisis with a hyphen (Levanto-me às sete, Sentou-se na areia) is correct and stays alive in formal Brazilian writing — you'll read it constantly and should recognize it — but it sounds starched in conversation. Mesóclise (levantar-me-ei) belongs to legal documents and old novels. One rule you can't bend: the hyphen exists ONLY when the pronoun follows the verb. In front of it, never — write me levanto, not me-levanto.
Reflexive vs. non-reflexive — meaning shifts
Several of these verbs mean genuinely different things with and without the pronoun, so this isn't decoration you can skip. lembrar = to remind: Me lembra de ligar pra ela = remind me to call her. lembrar-se de = to remember: Me lembro dela. esquecer = to leave something somewhere: Esqueci as chaves no carro. esquecer-se de = to forget about: Me esqueci das chaves. chamar = to call: Chamei o táxi. chamar-se = to be named: Me chamo Pedro. rir = to laugh: Ele riu muito. rir-se de / rir de = to laugh AT someone, which is mockery: Riu de mim. ir = to go: Vou ao mercado. ir embora = to leave, to clear out: Vou embora. encontrar = to find: Encontrei a carteira. encontrar-se = to meet up: A gente se encontrou na praia. tornar-se = to become, and in Brazil the everyday cousins are virar and ficar: Se tornou professor is written, Virou professor is spoken, Ficou famoso covers 'became famous'. Last pair, the one Brazilians will correct you on: machucar-se is what happens to your knee, magoar-se is what happens to your feelings. Me machuquei jogando bola. Ela se magoou com o que você disse.
Common pitfalls, and what you'll actually hear
Pitfall 1: losing the preposition. lembrar-se DE, esquecer-se DE, queixar-se DE, arrepender-se DE, atrever-se A, apaixonar-se POR. Lembro de você is fine; lembro você is not. Pitfall 2: the hyphen. It appears only in enclisis (sentou-se); in front of the verb there is none (se sentou). Pitfall 3: the nós form. Brazilian is nós nos encontramos, nós nos divertimos — the verb keeps its s. Pitfall 4: queixar-se is correct and slightly formal; the word that comes out of Brazilian mouths is reclamar de — Ela reclamou do barulho, Vive reclamando. Use queixar-se in writing and complaints filed on paper (uma queixa is also the word for a police report: dar queixa). Pitfall 5: ir-se embora is the dictionary lemma; Vou embora is the daily form, and Vou me embora also lives in Brazil, most famously in the line Vou me embora pra Pasárgada. All three are understood; Vou embora is the safe one. Pitfall 6: don't stack the pronoun twice with two verbs — Vou me arrumar, never vou me arrumar-me. Pitfall 7: se is not only reflexive; you already met it as the passive se (Vende-se casa) and you'll meet it again in lesson 39. Same little word, three different jobs.
