Les verbes pronominaux
A reflexive verb is one where the subject acts on itself: 'I wash myself', 'she gets up'. French marks this with a small pronoun before the verb that matches the subject: me, te, se, nous, vous, se. You've already used one without knowing it — je m'appelle (literally 'I call myself'). Today: the full pattern, plus the four or five verbs that fill every French morning.
The reflexive pronouns
me (myself), te (yourself), se (himself / herself / itself / themselves), nous (ourselves), vous (yourself / yourselves), se (themselves). Notice se does double duty for both 3rd singular and 3rd plural — French doesn't distinguish. The infinitive shows se in front: se laver = to wash (oneself). Like the object pronouns from lesson 13, they all elide before a vowel: m', t', s'.
Conjugating se laver (to wash up)
Take se laver, drop the se, conjugate laver as a normal -er verb, then put the matching pronoun in front. je me lave = I wash up. tu te laves = you wash up. il se lave / elle se lave = he/she washes up. nous nous lavons = we wash up (yes, nous twice — first as subject, then as reflexive). vous vous lavez = you wash up. ils se lavent / elles se lavent = they wash up. The pronoun matches the subject every time.
Elision before a vowel
me/te/se drop their vowel before another vowel — same as everywhere else in French. se appeler → s'appeler: je m'appelle (I'm called), tu t'appelles, il s'appelle, nous nous appelons, vous vous appelez, ils s'appellent. se habiller → s'habiller (silent h counts as a vowel): je m'habille, il s'habille. Watch for the same pattern with any reflexive whose stem starts with a vowel.
Negation: ne wraps the whole reflexive unit
Just like the object pronouns from the last lessons, ne … pas sandwiches BOTH the reflexive pronoun and the verb. Je me lave → Je ne me lave pas (I don't wash up). Elle s'appelle Marie → Elle ne s'appelle pas Marie (Her name isn't Marie). Nous nous levons → Nous ne nous levons pas tôt (We don't get up early). The order is fixed: ne + reflexive + verb + pas.
Why French marks 'reflexive' more than English
Many of these verbs translate without 'myself' in English. Je me lève = I get up (not 'I get myself up'). Elle se réveille = she wakes up. Ils s'habillent = they get dressed. The reflexive pronoun is required in French even when English doesn't show it — because the verb means something different without it: lever alone means 'to lift' (transitive), se lever means 'to get oneself up' (= to get up). Same pattern: réveiller (to wake someone up) vs se réveiller (to wake up), habiller (to dress someone) vs s'habiller (to get dressed).
