Lesson 43 Notes

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In this edition:
more about
your daily
routine
Lesson 43
Notes
Me levanto y me ducho
Reflexive verbs
Programme Notes
Coffee Break Spanish notes guide you through the content of each lesson. In this week’s notes we’ll
discuss the concept of reflexive verbs.
A little review
To begin with, let’s consider one of the first phrases you learned back in the early lessons of
Coffee Break Spanish: me llamo ... At the time we translated this as “my name is ...”, or “I am
called ...”. However, the actual literal translation of this phrase is “I call myself ”. It’s an example of
a reflexive verb. In many languages reflexive verbs are used to talk about things that you do “to
yourself ”. Obvious examples include “to wash yourself ”, “to dress yourself ”, etc. However, in
some languages verbs are used reflexively when they’re “normal” in English. Think of the verb “to
shower” (or “to take a shower”) in English. In Spanish you can’t say “I shower”: you must say “I
shower myself ”.
Starting the day the reflexive way...
It so happens that in Spanish most of what happens in the morning and in the evening involves
reflexive verbs. Starting with “waking up” and “getting up”, you need to use reflexive verbs
throughout this part of the day.
some reflexive verbs
me despierto
I wake (myself) up
me levanto
I get (myself) up
me ducho
I shower (myself)
me baño
I bath (myself) / I have a bath
me afeito
I shave (myself)
me maquillo
I put on my makeup
me peino
I do my hair
me visto
I dress (myself)
Note that in many cases the word “myself ” is not really necessary. Often there is a more effective
translation. Consider for example “I shower (myself)” and “I have/take a shower”, or “I shave
(myself)” and “I have a shave”, or just “I shave”. As you get more familiar with reflexive verbs
you’ll encounter verbs which don’t have any “self ” element in their translation.
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 43
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...and ending it reflexively too!
By coincidence (or design!) the words which describe the later part of the day are also reflexive.
more reflexive verbs
me acuesto
I go to bed
me desnudo
I get undressed
me duermo
I go to sleep
Enough about “me”!
Most of the verbs so far are more or less regular. As with almost all “I” forms, they end in -o. It’s
very important to remember that the word me does not mean “I”, but rather “myself ”. When it
comes to talking about other people, whether “you”, “he”, “she”, etc. the me is replaced by another
“reflexive pronoun”. In addition to the changing reflexive pronoun, the verb form also has to
change. Have a look at the table below which shows the “you” informal form of some of the verbs
we’ve covered so far.
2nd person examples of reflexive verbs
te despiertas
you wake up
te levantas
you get up
te duchas
you shower / have a shower
te maquillas
you put on your makeup
te vistes
you get dressed
te acuestas
you go to bed
In most of the examples above the -o ending turns to -as, although as you have probably noticed
that in the case of te vistes the ending is -es. You also need to make sure that you use the reflexive
pronoun te in each of these cases.
Conjugating reflexive verbs
To conjugate a reflexive verb in its six parts you need to learn the six reflexive pronouns. These are
very easy to learn and they make perfect sense!
reflexive pronouns
me
nos
te
os
se
se
Now let’s consider a reflexive verb in a full conjugation. The infinitive form of a reflexive verb adds
the se pronoun to the end of the infinitive, so “to shower oneself ” is ducharse, and “to get up” is
levantarse, etc.
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We’ll take the verb “to get up”. We have to use the standard endings we now know for an -ar verbs,
and add the reflexive pronouns:
levantarse - to get up
me levanto
nos levantamos
te levantas
os levantáis
se levanta
se levantan
Here is a translation of each part of this verb:
levantarse - to get up
I get up
we get up
you (inf. singular) get up
you (inf. plural) get up
he/she/it gets up
you (formal singular) get up
they get up
you (formal plural) get up
Most of the other verbs work in exactly the same way.
ducharse - to shower
me ducho
nos duchamos
te duchas
os ducháis
se ducha
se duchan
maquillarse - to put on makeup
me maquillo
nos maquillamos
te maquillas
os maquilláis
se maquilla
se maquillan
More time phrases
In the last episode we learned some basic time phrases. We can now add to these:
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 43
a las cinco
at five o’clock
a las cinco y cinco
at 5:05
a las cinco y diez
at 5:10
a las cinco y cuarto
at 5:15
a las cinco y veinte
at 5:20
a las cinco y veinticinco
at 5:25
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a las cinco y media
at 5:30
a las seis menos
veinticinco
at 5:35
a las seis menos veinte
at 5:40
a las seis menos cuarto
at 5:45
a las seis menos diez
at 5:50
a las seis menos cinco
at 5:55
Comprehension text
Check how much you understand of this text.
Juan se despierta a las siete y se levanta a
las siete y cuarto. Desayuna a las siete y
media. Se ducha y se afeita a las ocho
menos cuarto. Antes de salir de la casa se
viste. Sale de la casa a eso de las ocho y
cuarto y llega al trabajo a las nueve.
Después del trabajo vuelve a casa y
descansa un poco. Cena con su familia a
las ocho. A las diez y media se acuesta y se
duerme sobre las once.
Now try to change all the 3rd person verbs in this passage into 1st person verbs:
_____________ a las siete y _____________ a las siete y cuarto. _____________ a
las siete y media. _____________ y _____________ a las ocho menos cuarto.
Antes de salir de la casa _____________. _____________ de la casa a eso de las
ocho y cuarto y _____________ al trabajo a las nueve. Después del trabajo
_____________ a casa y _____________ un poco. _____________ con
_____________ familia a las ocho. A las diez y media _____________ y
_____________ sobre las once.
Answers to this exercise can be found on page 5. Having read and understood the text, try to make
up one yourself. Don’t forget that you can post your own efforts on the Radio Lingua Network
forum:
Direct link: http://www.radiolinguamedia.com/bb/cbf-bb/viewtopic.php?t=37
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Answers to exercise:
Me despierto a las siete y me levanto a las
siete y cuarto. Desayuno a las siete y
media. Me ducho y me afeito a las ocho
menos cuarto. Antes de salir de la casa me
visto. Salgo de la casa a eso de las ocho y
cuarto y llego al trabajo a las nueve.
Después del trabajo vuelvo a casa y
descanso un poco. Ceno con mi familia a
las ocho. A las diez y media me acuesto y
me duermo sobre las once.
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Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 43
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