Some actions you do for or to other people. You can wash a car, wake a friend, or dress a child. But many actions you do to yourself. You wash your hands, you wake up, you get dressed. In Spanish, when the person doing the action is also the person receiving it, we use a special kind of verb.

Think of it like the verb is looking in a mirror. The action starts with the subject and bounces right back. This is a common concept, and Spanish has a neat way of flagging these verbs.

In Spanish, you can spot a reflexive verb in its infinitive form—the basic, unconjugated version you'd find in a dictionary. All reflexive infinitives end with the letters '-se' attached to the usual verb ending.

This little '-se' is a clue that the action is done by the subject to the subject. Many verbs have both a regular and a reflexive form, and the meaning changes slightly. Take a look.

See the pattern? The '-se' signals that the action is personal. You don't just 'lift' in the morning; you 'lift yourself' out of bed.

Reflexive verbs don't work alone. They always come with a partner: a reflexive pronoun. These small words are essential. They specify exactly who is receiving the action. That '-se' we saw on the infinitive is actually a pronoun, and it changes depending on who the subject is.

Each subject pronoun (like yo, tú, nosotros) has its own corresponding reflexive pronoun. You must use the correct one for your sentence to make sense. Here are the pairs you need to know.

When you use a reflexive verb, you'll always include one of these pronouns to show who's doing the action to themselves. Think of them as a required part of the verb. We'll explore how to combine them to build sentences next.