Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to conjugate and use Italian reflexive verbs, including recognizing them by their infinitive form.

Lesson Explanation

Like Spanish, Italian reflexive verbs are marked by a reflexive pronoun attached to the infinitive: lavarsi (to wash oneself), recognizable by the -si ending.

Reflexive pronouns match the subject and go before the conjugated verb:

mi lavo — I wash myself
ti lavi — you wash yourself
si lava — he/she washes himself/herself
ci laviamo — we wash ourselves
vi lavate — you all wash yourselves
si lavano — they wash themselves

Many daily-routine verbs are reflexive in Italian just as in Spanish: alzarsi (to get up), svegliarsi (to wake up), vestirsi (to get dressed), addormentarsi (to fall asleep), chiamarsi (to be named — already seen in Part 1, Lesson 3’s “Mi chiamo Marco”).

A genuinely important, distinctive detail with no Spanish equivalent: reflexive verbs ALWAYS use essere, never avere, as their auxiliary in the passato prossimo (Part 4) — and the past participle must then agree in gender/number with the subject, exactly like the essere-group verbs covered in Part 4, Lesson 2: Mi sono lavato. (I washed myself — masculine speaker.) Mi sono lavata. (feminine speaker.)

Practice Questions