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Reflexive Pronouns

TagsClitics Direct and Indirect Objects Grammar Pronouns Reflexive Verbs
UnitReflexive Verbs
9 min read

Portuguese reflexive verbs are formed by adding the reflexive pronouns me, te, se, or nos. When the direct object or indirect object represents the same person or thing as the subject of the verb, it’s expressed by a reflexive pronoun.
In other words, we use reflexive pronouns when the action is something one does to oneself. In English, this would be words like myself, yourself, himself, ourselves, themselves, etc. For example, in the sentence “She convinced herself”, she is both the subject and the object, so we use herself as the reflexive pronoun.
You’ve probably come across some of these in earlier units and wondered how they work. For example:

As you’ll find below, verbs that are reflexive in Portuguese are not always reflexive in English, and vice versa.
Reflexive pronouns are clitic pronouns. A clitic is similar to an affix because it goes along with the verb rather than standing on its own. You’ll learn about the other clitics in more detail in a later unit. Luckily, they are mostly the same. Portuguese reflexive pronouns share most of the same pronouns as the Portuguese clitic direct and indirect object pronouns. The only difference is in the 3rd person, both singular and plural: se.
One last thing to note is that clitic pronouns are unstressed. (In another learning note, we’ll cover si and consigo, which are stressed pronouns.)

Reflexive Pronouns in Portuguese

Here are the reflexive pronouns that correspond to each subject pronoun.

Subject pronouns Reflexive pronouns
Eu me
Tu te
Ele / Ela / Você se
Nós nos
Eles / Elas / Vocês se

Let’s have a look at each pronoun individually, using one of the simplest Portuguese reflexive verbs, vestir-seto dress oneself, to get dressed

Me

Me is the equivalent of myself. Example:
Eu vesti-me à pressa para não chegar atrasado.I dressed myself in a hurry, so I wouldn’t be late.

Te

Te is used in informal contexts and corresponds to yourself. Example:
Vestes-te tão lentamente!You dress yourself so slowly!

Nos

Nos is the equivalent of ourselves. Example:
Vestimo-nos com os nossos disfarces de Carnaval.We dressed ourselves with our Carnival costumes.
Notice when adding -nos that the -s at the end of 1st-person plural verb forms is always dropped: vestimos + nos = vestimo-nos.
Note: This rule about just dropping the -s in the 1st person plural only applies to the clitics -nos and -vos. You can also read this Learning Note on 3rd Person clitic object pronouns to learn more about other contexts in which you have to drop and/or add a letter when using clitics.

Se

Se is used for all the other pronouns: ele, ela, eles, elas, você, and vocês. Here, se stands in for himself, herself, itself, themselves, yourself(formal), and yourselves (talking to a group).
Examples:
Ele veste-se muito bem.He dresses himself well.
Ele não se veste nada bem.He really doesn't dress himself well.
Você vestiu-se de Pai Natal.You dressed yourself as Father Christmas.
As crianças vestiram-se de gnomos.The children dressed themselves as gnomes.
Os pais vestiram-se de renas.The parents dressed themselves as reindeer.

Where do You Put the Reflexive Pronoun?

Reflexive pronouns follow the same rules as other clitic pronouns. As you can see in the examples above, the reflexive pronoun is usually placed after the verb, connected by a hyphen, as in “vestiram-se”. There are many exceptions, though, so below we have listed the situations in which the pronoun comes before the verb.
Note: These rules can feel overwhelming, so we typically don’t recommend memorizing them. It helps to be familiar with them, but for most people, the easiest way to understand reflexive verbs is by seeing and hearing lots of examples over time. (In real life, in this Learning Note, in Shorties, and in the Lessons in this Reflexive Verbs unit!)

1. Following a “negative” word, such as não, nunca, nada, or ninguém

Não me lembroI don't remember
Ela não se quer deitarShe doesn't want to lie down

2. When the reflexive verb follows an adverb, or a “question word” (interrogative adverbs and interrogative pronouns)

Como te chamas?What is your name?, What do you call yourself?
Não sei onde me vou esconderI don't know where I'm going to hide

3. When the reflexive verb follows an indefinite or relative pronoun

Indefinite pronouns are pronouns that refer to a noun in a more general way (todos, alguém, qualquer, cada, certos, tantos, etc), and relative pronouns include qual, quanto, que, quem, etc.
Qualquer pessoa se teria queixadoAnybody would have complained
Certas pessoas não se sabem comportar!Some people don’t know how to behave!

4. When the reflexive verb follows a subordinating conjunction

Chegámos agora porque nos despachámos mais cedoWe came now because we finished early
Eu faço jardinagem, a fim de me acalmarI garden in order to calm myself down
That’s a lot to remember! Don’t worry, we’ll review these rules again in the Clitic Object Pronouns unit.

Reciprocal Pronouns

In slight contrast to reflexive pronouns, the plural forms of the reflexive, nos and se, can also be used to express a mutual (reciprocal) action between two or more people. In English, the equivalent is each other. You can call these pronomes recíprocosreciprocal pronouns . For example:
Nós abraçamo-nos.We hug each other.
Eles não se cumprimentam.They don't greet each other.

Which Portuguese Verbs are Reflexive?

A common question is how to know which Portuguese verbs are reflexive. Verbos reflexos are also known as verbos pronominais reflexos (pronominal reflexive verbs) because they combine themselves with the clitic pronouns we mentioned above: me, te, se, and nos. The action expressed by the verb “falls” on the subject represented by the pronoun (i.e. whomever takes the action).
Some verbs are always reflexive, while some can exist in both reflexive and non-reflexive forms. With the latter, however, the meaning of the verb can change accordingly. Let’s look at some examples:

  • Encontrei um euro no chãoI found a euro on the floor
  • Encontrei-me com o João na terçaI met up with João on Tuesday – reflexive
  • Pergunta-lhe se está tudo bemAsk him if everything is fine
  • Pergunto-me se está tudo bem com eleI wonder if everything's ok with him – reflexive

In the first pair, you can see that the verb encontrar means “to find” in the first sentence, while the reflexive verb encontrar-se in the second means “to meet up”.
Then, in the second pair, the verb perguntar means “to ask”, while in the second sentence, the reflexive verb perguntar-se means “to wonder”.

How will I know the difference?

The difference in meaning between the two “versions” of a verb can often be understood from context. For example, “meeting up with” someone is basically the same as “finding yourself with” someone, even though we wouldn’t word it like that in English. “Wondering” something is basically the same as “asking yourself” something.

Which verbs are always reflexive?

Now, as mentioned above, some verbs are always reflexive and have to be paired with a reflexive pronoun. This is the case with the verbs arrepender, queixar and zangar, for example.
You can’t just say Eu arrependo or Eles queixam; you need to add a pronoun to the sentence.

  • Eu arrependo-me do que disseI regret what I said
  • Eles queixam-se do barulhoThey complain about the noise

Exception: If you use the past participle of these verbs, you don’t need to add a pronoun. Eu estou arrependidoI am sorry, I am regretful

Portuguese Reflexive Verbs in English

Some reflexive verbs, like ver-se, are also reflexive in English: Eu vi-me no espelhoI saw myself in the mirror . However, there are also many verbs that are reflexive in Portuguese, but not in English. In other words, sometimes a verb requires a reflexive pronoun in Portuguese, but it can stand alone in English. Below are some examples:
Eles lembram-se do meu aniversárioThey remember my birthday
Eu rio-me muito contigoI laugh a lot with you
Ela atrasou-seShe's late
Sentes-te bem?Do you feel well?
Eu levantei-meI got up
Other examples include: vestir-seto get dressed , esquecer-seto forget , zangar-seto get mad , chamar-seto be called and divertir-seto have fun , to name a few.

Learning More

We’ll dive deeper into the topic in the next unit (Tonic Pronouns) with the Learning Note on Reflexivity with Tonic Pronouns. It will cover words like comigo, contigo, etc, as well as how to add próprio or mesmo to a phrase to emphasize the reflexive nature of a verb even more.
But for now, let’s continue to on to the next lesson to start practicing what we’ve learned so far about how to form reflexive verbs!