French grammar · Beginner
French Reflexive Verbs: Me, Te, Se and the Daily Routine
A reflexive verb is one whose object is the same person as its subject: je me lave, I wash myself. French marks this with a pronoun in front of the verb — me, te, se, nous, vous, se — and uses the construction far more often than English, especially for everything you do to your own body.
Je me lève à sept heures et je m'habille en dix minutes.
I get up at seven and get dressed in ten minutes.
What it is
English usually leaves the reflexive implied. You say I got up, not I got myself up. French does not allow that ellipsis: if the subject is also the target of the action, a pronoun has to say so. That single requirement produces most of the vocabulary you need to describe a morning.
Je lave la voiture, mais je me lave les mains. — I wash the car, but I wash my hands.
How to spot it
Look for a small pronoun squeezed between the subject and the verb that repeats the subject. If it matches the subject in person, the verb is reflexive.
- Tu te réveilles tôt. — You wake up early.
- Elle se repose un moment. — She's resting for a moment.
- Nous nous préparons. — We're getting ready.
- Ils se couchent tard. — They go to bed late.
Nous nous and vous vous look like typos but are correct: the first word is the subject, the second is the reflexive pronoun.
Reflexive Verbs Quick Reference
The reflexive pronouns and a sample verb
| Subject | Pronoun | se coucher — to go to bed |
|---|---|---|
| je | me / m' | je me couche |
| tu | te / t' | tu te couches |
| il / elle / on | se / s' | il se couche |
| nous | nous | nous nous couchons |
| vous | vous | vous vous couchez |
| ils / elles | se / s' | ils se couchent |
| infinitive | matches the subject | je dois me coucher |
| negative | wraps both | je ne me couche pas |
Common Reflexive Verbs Examples in French
Reflexive verbs across the situations where French needs them most:
Getting Through the Morning
- Je me réveille à six heures.
- I wake up at six.
- Il se rase tous les deux jours.
- He shaves every other day.
- Elle se maquille dans le train.
- She puts on her make-up on the train.
- On se dépêche, on est en retard.
- Let's hurry up, we're late.
Almost the whole routine is reflexive in French: se lever, se doucher, s'habiller, se coiffer, se brosser les dents.
Feelings and States
- Je me sens mieux aujourd'hui.
- I feel better today.
- Ne t'inquiète pas.
- Don't worry.
- Elle s'énerve facilement.
- She gets annoyed easily.
- Nous nous amusons bien.
- We're having a good time.
Where English uses get plus an adjective — get angry, get bored, get tired — French usually has a reflexive verb ready.
Position and Movement
- Assieds-toi, je t'en prie.
- Sit down, please.
- Il s'est levé d'un bond.
- He jumped to his feet.
- Elles se promènent au bord du lac.
- They're strolling by the lake.
- Arrête-toi ici.
- Stop here.
Arrêter means to stop something else; s'arrêter means to come to a stop yourself. The pronoun changes who is affected.
In the Past
- Je me suis couché tard.
- I went to bed late.
- Elle s'est levée à l'aube.
- She got up at dawn.
- Nous nous sommes perdus.
- We got lost.
- Ils se sont bien reposés.
- They rested well.
Every reflexive verb takes être in the passé composé, and the participle normally agrees with the subject.
How Reflexive Verbs Work
Four structural facts cover the whole system: pronoun choice, placement, auxiliary, and agreement.
The Pronoun Matches the Subject
Me, te, se, nous, vous, se. The dictionary lists the verb with se because that is the third-person form, but you change it for every other subject. Se laver becomes je me lave, not *je se lave.
Vous vous trompez de porte.
You've got the wrong door.
Change se to match the subject.
It Sits Immediately Before the Verb
The pronoun goes in front of the conjugated verb, and in front of the auxiliary in compound tenses. Negation wraps around both: ne me lève pas becomes ne + me lève + pas.
Je ne me souviens pas de son nom.
I don't remember his name.
ne + pronoun + verb + pas.
The Infinitive Keeps Its Own Pronoun
When a reflexive verb follows another verb, the pronoun stays glued to the infinitive but still matches the subject of the sentence. Je vais me coucher, tu dois te lever.
Nous allons nous préparer.
We're going to get ready.
The pronoun follows the person, not the infinitive.
Compound Tenses Use Être
Regardless of what the non-reflexive verb would take, the reflexive version uses être. Laver gives j'ai lavé, but se laver gives je me suis lavé.
Elle s'est habillée en cinq minutes.
She got dressed in five minutes.
Reflexive → être.
Agreement Follows the Direct Object
The participle agrees with the reflexive pronoun when that pronoun is the direct object. If a direct object noun comes after the verb instead, the pronoun becomes indirect and the agreement is blocked.
Elle s'est lavée, puis elle s'est lavé les mains.
She washed, then she washed her hands.
No following object → agree. Following object → don't.
Common Mistakes with Reflexive Verbs
Incorrect: Je se lève à sept heures. — I get up at seven.
Correct: Je me lève à sept heures. — I get up at seven.
Se is only the third-person form, and the dictionary lists it that way because it has to list something. The pronoun always changes to match the actual subject.
Incorrect: Elle a se couchée tôt. — She went to bed early.
Correct: Elle s'est couchée tôt. — She went to bed early.
Reflexive verbs take être, and the pronoun goes in front of the auxiliary. Two errors travel together here, and fixing the auxiliary usually fixes the word order too.
Incorrect: Je me brosse mes dents. — I brush my teeth.
Correct: Je me brosse les dents. — I brush my teeth.
The reflexive pronoun already tells you whose teeth these are, so French uses the definite article. Adding a possessive duplicates information the sentence has already given.
Incorrect: Lève toi ! — Get up!
Correct: Lève-toi ! — Get up!
In a positive command the pronoun attaches to the verb with a hyphen and te becomes toi. Without the hyphen the sentence reads as a verb followed by a stray pronoun.
A Reflexive Verb Across the Tenses
Se lever is the model worth memorising: it is reflexive, it has an accent change in the stem, and it appears in every conversation about daily life.
Se lever, to get up
The è appears whenever the ending is silent, which covers four present forms and the entire future and conditional.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | passé composé |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | me lève | me levais | me lèverai | me suis levé(e) |
| tu | te lèves | te levais | te lèveras | t'es levé(e) |
| il / elle / on | se lève | se levait | se lèvera | s'est levé(e) |
| nous | nous levons | nous levions | nous lèverons | nous sommes levé(e)s |
| vous | vous levez | vous leviez | vous lèverez | vous êtes levé(e)(s) |
| ils / elles | se lèvent | se levaient | se lèveront | se sont levé(e)s |
Nous levons and vous levez keep the plain e because the ending is pronounced. Everywhere else you need lève.
Three common patterns in the present
S'habiller is fully regular, se souvenir has the venir stem change, and s'asseoir is irregular enough to be worth reading twice.
| Pronoun | s'habiller | se souvenir | s'asseoir |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | m'habille | me souviens | m'assieds |
| tu | t'habilles | te souviens | t'assieds |
| il / elle / on | s'habille | se souvient | s'assied |
| nous | nous habillons | nous souvenons | nous asseyons |
| vous | vous habillez | vous souvenez | vous asseyez |
| ils / elles | s'habillent | se souviennent | s'asseyent |
The pronoun elides before a vowel or mute h: m'habille, t'assieds. It never elides in the nous and vous forms.
Giving orders
In a positive command the pronoun moves behind the verb and te becomes the stressed toi. In a negative command everything returns to its normal place.
| Pronoun | impératif positif | impératif négatif |
|---|---|---|
| tu | lève-toi | ne te lève pas |
| nous | levons-nous | ne nous levons pas |
| vous | levez-vous | ne vous levez pas |
| tu (s'asseoir) | assieds-toi | ne t'assieds pas |
| vous (s'asseoir) | asseyez-vous | ne vous asseyez pas |
| tu (se dépêcher) | dépêche-toi | ne te dépêche pas |
The hyphen is obligatory in the positive form. Lève toi without it is a spelling mistake, not a stylistic choice.
Body Parts, Clothes, and the Missing Possessive
The reflexive pronoun already says whose body you mean, so French replaces the possessive adjective with a plain definite article.
The article replaces my, your, his
With a reflexive verb, use le, la, or les in front of the body part. The pronoun has already identified the owner, and repeating it with mon or ton sounds wrong.
- Je me brosse les dents.
- I brush my teeth.
- Elle se lave les cheveux.
- She's washing her hair.
- Il s'est cassé la jambe.
- He broke his leg.
- Lave-toi les mains.
- Wash your hands.
Je me brosse mes dents is not a stronger version of the same thing; it is simply incorrect.
Which blocks the agreement
Once a body part follows the verb, it becomes the direct object and the reflexive pronoun is demoted to indirect. The participle then stays invariable.
- Elle s'est lavée.
- She washed.
- Elle s'est lavé les mains.
- She washed her hands.
- Ils se sont brossé les dents.
- They brushed their teeth.
- Elle s'est coupé le doigt.
- She cut her finger.
One rule, two outcomes: if a direct object follows the verb, no agreement; if none does, the participle agrees with the subject.
Clothes work the same way
Putting on and taking off your own clothes uses a reflexive verb plus the definite article, though a possessive is also heard here and is not wrong.
- Il s'est enlevé les chaussures.
- He took his shoes off.
- Elle se met du parfum.
- She's putting on perfume.
- Couvre-toi la tête.
- Cover your head.
For simply getting dressed, s'habiller does the whole job on its own: je m'habille.
Reflexive Verbs FAQs
- What is a reflexive verb in French?
- A verb whose subject and object are the same person, marked by a pronoun before the verb: je me lave, tu te lèves, il se rase. French uses the structure for most daily-routine actions, where English simply drops the reflexive.
- Do reflexive verbs use être or avoir in the past?
- Always être: je me suis levé, elle s'est habillée, nous nous sommes reposés. This holds even for verbs that take avoir in their non-reflexive form, like laver, which gives j'ai lavé but je me suis lavé.
- When does the past participle agree with a reflexive verb?
- When the reflexive pronoun is the direct object, meaning nothing else follows the verb as an object: elle s'est levée. If a direct object does follow, the agreement is cancelled: elle s'est lavé les mains.
- Where does the pronoun go in a negative sentence?
- Between ne and the verb, inside the negation: je ne me couche pas avant minuit. In the passé composé it goes before the auxiliary: je ne me suis pas couché tôt.
- How do I say get up in a command?
- Lève-toi for tu, levez-vous for vous, levons-nous for nous. The pronoun moves after the verb with a hyphen, and te changes to toi. In a negative command it goes back in front: ne te lève pas.