REFLEXIVE VERBS
Transcription
REFLEXIVE VERBS
Academic Services The Language Centre abc French Grammar: Worksheet 32 REFLEXIVE VERBS In the sentence: “he is enjoying himself”, enjoy is a reflexive verb, that is to say, himself and he refer to the same person. In the infinitive, the form of a reflexive verb is: "to enjoy oneself". In French, a reflexive verb is a verb associated with a reflexive pronoun. In the infinitive, the reflexive pronoun is se: se + laver = to wash (oneself) "se" is also used with il / elle and ils / elles (il se lave, elles se lavent). For the other pronouns (je, tu, nous and vous), the reflexive pronouns are the same as the direct object pronouns (me, te, nous, vous): reflexive pronouns me = (to) myself te = (to) yourself se=(to)himself/herself/itself/onese lf/themselves nous = (to) ourselves vous = (to) yourself/ yourselves je m'amuse = I (am) enjoy(ing) myself tu t'amuses = you (are) enjoy(ing) yourself il/elle s'amuse = he/she (is) enjoy(ing) himself/ herself ils/elles s'amusent = they (are) enjoy(ing) themselves nous nous amusons = we (are) enjoy(ing) ourselves vous vous amusez = you (are) enjoy(ing) yourself/yourselves • The "e" of me, te, se is dropped before a vowel (je m'amuse). • In the repeated forms of "nous nous" and "vous vous", the first "nous" and "vous" are subject pronouns, the second ones are reflexive pronouns. • The reflexive pronoun corresponding to "on" is "se" on s'amuse beaucoup (one enjoys oneself a lot/we enjoy ourselves a lot) • A verb that is reflexive in French is not necessarily reflexive in English. Here are some of the most common reflexive verbs in French and their translation in English: s'amuser to enjoy oneself, to have a good time to be called s'appeler to stop s'arrêter to sit down s'asseoir to hurry se dépêcher to go (away) s'en aller to get bored s'ennuyer to wash oneself/to get washed se laver to get up, to stand up se lever to happen se passer to have a walk se promener to recall, to remember se rappeler to remember se souvenir (de) to make a mistake se tromper to be situated se trouver Some of the reflexive pronouns are also used to indicate a reciprocal action involving two or more persons: Page 1 of 4 on s'aime (we love one another) ils se détestent (they hate each other) nous nous écrivons régulièrement (we write to one another regularly) • In the imperative, the reflexive pronoun is placed after the verb in the affirmative: amuse-toi! (enjoy yourself!) asseyons-nous! (let's sit down!) souvenez-vous! (remember!) but stays in its usual place -before the verb - in the negative form: ne vous en allez pas! (don't go away!) ne vous trompez pas! (don't make a mistake!) • When conjugated in the present perfect, all reflexive verbs take the auxiliary "être": (je me suis trompé(e), tu t'es trompé(e), il/elle s'est trompé(e), nous nous sommes trompé(e)s, vous vous êtes trompé(e)s, ils/elles se sont trompé(e)s) Je me suis arrêté(e) aux feux (I stopped at the traffic lights) Nous nous sommes dépêché(e)s pour ne pas être en retard (we hurried along in order not to be late) elles se sont trompées (they made a mistake) See sheet 36 if you want to revise the agreement of the past participle EXERCISES A Insert the correct form of the reflexive verb in the present in the affirmative or negative e.g (se coucher) oui, je.......très tard - oui, je me couche très tard (s'ennuyer) non, nous........jamais - non, nous ne nous ennuyons jamais 1- (s'amuser) oui, ils ..................……….......... beaucoup. 2- (s'appeler) non, elle ..................……….......... Claire. 3- (se dépêcher) oui, je ..................……….......... de terminer mon travail. 4- (s'en aller) non, nous ..................……….......... tout de suite. 5- (s'arrêter) oui, tu dois ..................……….......... aux feux. 6- (s'asseoir) oui, elles ..................……….......... dans la salle d'attente. 7- (se souvenir) oui, on ..................……….......... des difficultés rencontrées. 8- (se rappeler) non, tu ..................……….......... l'adresse. 9- (se tromper) oui, il doit ..................……….......... 10- (se voir) oui, ils ..................……….......... tous les mercredis. appeler and rappeler have some irregular forms in the present (j'appelle,tu appelles, il appelle,ils appellent) s'asseoir is an irregular verb (je m'assieds, tu t'assieds, il s'assied, nous nous asseyons, vous vous asseyez, ils s'asseyent) salle (f) d'attente = waiting room rencontrées = met tous les = every Page 2 of 4 B Using the time indication given in brackets turn the following sentences into the past e.g: je me trompe souvent (hier) - je me suis trompé(e) hier I often make mistakes (yesterday) - I made a mistake yesterday 1- Nous nous levons à huit heures (dimanche). ___________________________________________________________________ 2- Est-ce que vous vous ennuyez aux conférences? (à la conférence de lundi dernier) ___________________________________________________________________ 3- Mon assistante se souvient de l'adresse de votre hôtel. (hier) ___________________________________________________________________ 4- Qu'est-ce qui se passe maintenant? (il y a quelques jours) ___________________________________________________________________ 5- Ils ne s'arrêtent pas pour déjeuner. (hier) ___________________________________________________________________ C Translate into French 1- We hurried up but we arrived late. ___________________________________________________________________ 2- I stopped at the bank. ___________________________________________________________________ 3- They telephone each other every Sunday. ___________________________________________________________________ 4- I think (that) the company is called Vélox. ___________________________________________________________________ 5- What's happening here? ___________________________________________________________________ 6- I got up early today in order to finish my report. ___________________________________________________________________ 7- We enjoyed ourselves a lot last night. ___________________________________________________________________ 8- What happened last Monday? ___________________________________________________________________ Page 3 of 4 9- They sat down on their luggage. ___________________________________________________________________ 10- I suddenly remembered his phone number. ___________________________________________________________________ late = en retard today = aujourd'hui a lot = (here) bien last night = hier soir luggage = bagages(m,pl) s'asseoir has an irregular past participle : assis(e) Page 4 of 4