Reflexive verbs (verbos reflexos)
A reflexive verb describes an action you do TO yourself: 'I get (myself) up', 'she dresses (herself)'. Portuguese marks this with a small reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, vos, se) attached to the verb. Most morning-routine verbs are reflexive: levantar-se (to get up), deitar-se (to lie down / go to bed), vestir-se (to get dressed), lavar-se (to wash up), chamar-se (to be named — you've already met it). Same PT/BR placement war as direct/indirect pronouns: PT enclitic by default, BR proclitic.
The pronouns
me = myself. te = yourself (informal). se = himself / herself / yourself (formal) / themselves. nos = ourselves. vos = yourselves (informal, mostly written PT). se = themselves / yourselves (formal). The 3rd-person form se does double duty for singular and plural — context decides. Notice that the 1st and 2nd person pronouns are spelled identically to the direct/indirect ones from lessons 13–14. The reflexive role is identified by the verb, not a different word.
Conjugating a reflexive verb — levantar-se
Drop -se to conjugate; the pronoun changes with the person. eu levanto-me = I get up. tu levantas-te = you get up. ele levanta-se / ela levanta-se / você levanta-se = he/she/you gets up. nós levantamo-nos = we get up (note: the verb drops its final -s before nos, and a hyphen joins them). eles levantam-se / elas levantam-se / vocês levantam-se = they/you all get up. The pattern repeats for any reflexive -ar/-er/-ir verb.
Placement — same triggers as before
European Portuguese: pronoun AFTER the verb in plain affirmatives, joined by a hyphen. Levanto-me às sete = I get up at seven. Move it BEFORE the verb when something triggers proclisis: negation (Não me levanto cedo = I don't get up early), question words (Quando te deitas? = when do you go to bed?), que and se (Quando me levanto, faço café — wait, quando triggers it too in clauses), and adverbs like já, sempre, também (Sempre me deito tarde = I always go to bed late). Brazilian Portuguese, again, defaults to proclitic: eu me levanto às sete, ele se veste, etc.
Reflexive vs non-reflexive — same verb, different meaning
Some verbs work both ways with shifted meanings. lavar = to wash (something else): Lavo o carro = I wash the car. lavar-se = to wash up: Lavo-me = I wash myself. vestir = to dress (someone else): A mãe veste o bebé = the mother dresses the baby. vestir-se = to get dressed: Visto-me = I get dressed. chamar = to call (someone): Chama o Pedro! = Call Pedro! chamar-se = to be named: Chamo-me Ana (already in lesson 2). The reflexive pronoun is what flips the meaning.
The daily routine — putting it together
Levanto-me às sete da manhã. Lavo-me, visto-me e como o pequeno-almoço. Trabalho até às seis. À noite, jante e deito-me às onze. A natural sentence string. Note pequeno-almoço = breakfast (Portugal). Brazilian: café da manhã. almoço = lunch, jantar = dinner (already met as a verb in lesson 9; the noun and verb share spelling).
BR colloquial: the reflexive that vanishes
In casual Brazilian speech, the reflexive se sometimes drops out altogether for verbs of motion or routine: Levantei cedo instead of Levantei-me cedo. This is conversational shorthand, not standard. In Portugal, dropping the reflexive changes the meaning — Levanto (without -me) means 'I lift (something else)' and the sentence sounds incomplete. Stick with the reflexive in your own writing; just be ready to hear it dropped in Brazilian dialogue.
