By the end of this lesson you'll be able to describe a typical day from morning to night, and use reflexive verbs with every subject pronoun.
Doing something to yourself
Many verbs for daily routines come with a small extra word. In the dictionary, it appears as se in front of the infinitive: se lever (to get up), se coucher (to go to bed).
This small word is a reflexive pronoun. It shows that the action comes back to the person doing it. Sometimes English has an equivalent, as in "I wash myself". More often it doesn't: "I get up" has nothing extra, but the French is je me lève, "I raise myself".
The pronoun changes to match the subject, and it goes straight before the verb.
| Subject | Reflexive pronoun |
|---|---|
| je | me |
| tu | te |
| il / elle / on | se |
| nous | nous |
| vous | vous |
| ils / elles | se |
Apart from that, these are ordinary verbs. The endings are the ones you learned in the lesson on regular -er verbs.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| je me lève | zhuh muh LEV | I get up |
| tu te lèves | tew tuh LEV | you get up (informal) |
| il se lève / elle se lève | eel suh LEV / el suh LEV | he gets up / she gets up |
| on se lève | ohn suh LEV | we get up (casual) |
| nous nous levons | noo noo luh-VOHN | we get up |
| vous vous levez | voo voo luh-VAY | you get up (formal or plural) |
| ils se lèvent / elles se lèvent | eel suh LEV / el suh LEV | they get up |
Look closely at the accent. Se lever takes a grave accent in the forms with a silent ending: lève, lèves, lèvent. There's no accent in levons and levez.
Verbs for your day
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| se lever | suh luh-VAY | to get up |
| se réveiller | suh ray-veh-YAY | to wake up |
| se doucher | suh doo-SHAY | to have a shower |
| se laver | suh lah-VAY | to wash (yourself) |
| se brosser les dents | suh broh-say lay DAHN | to brush your teeth |
| s'habiller | sah-bee-YAY | to get dressed |
| se dépêcher | suh day-peh-SHAY | to hurry |
| se reposer | suh ruh-poh-ZAY | to rest |
| se coucher | suh koo-SHAY | to go to bed |
| s'appeler | sah-PLAY | to be called |
Before a vowel or silent h, me, te and se shorten to m', t' and s', as in je m'habille or elle s'habille.
You've been using one reflexive verb since the introductions lesson. Je m'appelle literally means "I call myself". Now you can see all of it: tu t'appelles, il s'appelle, nous nous appelons, vous vous appelez, ils s'appellent. Remember that it has two Ls in the forms with silent endings.
Je me réveille à six heures et demie.
I wake up at half past six.
Tu te douches le matin ?
Do you have a shower in the morning?
Il s'habille et il se dépêche.
He gets dressed and he hurries.
Nous nous reposons le soir.
We rest in the evening.
With or without the pronoun
Many of these verbs also exist without the pronoun, and then the action is done to something or someone else.
- Je me lave. (I wash myself.)
- Je lave la voiture. (I wash the car.)
- Il se réveille. (He wakes up.)
- Il réveille Marc. (He wakes Marc up.)
So the pronoun is a real part of the meaning, and it's not just decoration.
Your routine also needs a few ordinary verbs. They have no pronoun, and they follow the usual pattern. With the times you learned in the lesson on telling the time, you can build a whole day.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| le matin | luh mah-TAN | the morning, in the morning |
| le soir | luh SWAHR | the evening, in the evening |
| déjeuner | day-zhuh-NAY | to have lunch |
| dîner | dee-NAY | to have dinner |
| rentrer | rahn-TRAY | to go home, to get back |
| laver | lah-VAY | to wash (something) |
Elles déjeunent à midi et elles rentrent à six heures.
They have lunch at noon and they get home at six.
If you want to make a reflexive verb negative, ne goes before the pronoun and pas after the verb: Je ne me lève pas.
Putting it together
Here's one person's morning, in order:
- Je me réveille à sept heures. (I wake up at seven.)
- Je me lève, je me douche et je m'habille. (I get up, shower and get dressed.)
- Je me brosse les dents, et je me dépêche ! (I brush my teeth, and I hurry!)
Notice je me brosse les dents. English says "my teeth", but French uses les, because the pronoun me already shows whose they are.
What's next
You can now describe a full day. In the review of this unit you'll bring it together with the other verbs and dates from this unit, and write about your typical week.