A "reflexive" sentence is one in which the subject and the object of the sentence refer to the same person (or people).

I wash myself.

Here "I" is the subject, "wash" is the verb, and "myself" is the object. Since "I" and "myself" refer to the same person ("me"), the sentence is reflexive.

So what is a reflexive verb?

There is a whole class of verbs in the Spanish language known as "reflexive verbs." They are verbs where, in addition to changing the verb endings, we also add what's called a "reflexive pronoun." This type of conjugation carries with it the idea that the subject does the action to him/herself.

In their infinitive form reflexive verbs end in a "-se" after the usual "-ar," "-er," or "-ir." For example afeitarse means "to shave" and you can see from its "-se" ending that it is a reflexive verb:

Yo me afeito.
I shave. (I shave myself).

In English when someone says "I shave" it's understood that they're talking about shaving themselves. Rarely does anyone say, "I shave myself." But in Spanish we're a bit more explicit.

This "extra" reflexive pronoun can be frustrating for students who are already busy enough trying to remember the verb endings and as a result it often gets ignored, but we can't just ignore the things we find difficult.

Spanish Reflexive Pronouns

So what are the reflexive pronouns we need to add? Here's the list:

me	nos
te	os
se	se

Therefore a full set of sentences with afeitarse as the verb would look like this:

Two things to be aware of before we get any further:

Reflexive pronouns are not optional. You cannot ignore them and hope they'll go away.

Reflexive pronouns do not replace the subject. "Nos" is not the same as "nosotros."

Let's look at the pronouns again this time with direct and indirect object pronouns included for comparison:

reflexive pronouns:	indirect object pronouns:	direct object pronouns:
me nos te os se se	me nos te os le les	me nos te os lo, la los, las

As you can see, the pronouns are all exactly the same until you get to the bottom line (the él/ella/Ud. and ellos/ellas/Uds. forms). At that point it's important that we remember to use se instead of lo, la, los, las, le, or les.

Remember when conjugating that the object you choose for a reflexive verbs is always going to agree with the subject. The object usually comes between the subject and the verb.

Tú te bañas.
You take baths. (You bathe yourself.)

Nosotros nos bañamos.
We take baths. (We bathe ourselves.)

Ella se sentó en el sofá.
She sat on the couch. (She sat herself on the couch.)

So how do you know if a verb is reflexive or not? Well, the idea that reflexive verbs are where the subject does the action to him/herself is a good starting place, but the truth is you really need to memorize which verbs are reflexive and which ones aren't. You won't be able to tell from context whether you need to add a reflexive pronoun or not. For some reflexive verbs it's quite obvious why they are reflexive but other reflexive verbs may make no sense to you whatsoever.

Common Reflexive Verbs

Here's a list of commonly used reflexive verbs.

reflexive verb:	meaning:	more literal translation:
acostarse afeitarse  apurarse bañarse despertarse ducharse lavarse levantarse peinarse  ponerse  quitarse reirse secarse sentarse sentirse	to go to bed to shave to hurry up to take a bath to wake up to take a shower to wash up to get up to comb one's hair to put on to take off to laugh to dry off to sit down to feel	to put oneself to bed to shave oneself to hurry oneself to bathe oneself to wake oneself -- to wash oneself to raise oneself -- to put onto oneself to remove from oneself -- to dry oneself to seat oneself --

A few things to note from the list above:

As mentioned before it's not obvious why some of these verbs are reflexive; they just are. The sooner you accept that, the better off you'll be.

Many reflexive verbs have to do with daily routine: washing, combing, drying, etc. and many have to do with emotions.

Some of the verbs listed are inherently reflexive and can't be conjugated any other way. Some also have non-reflexive forms that convey different meanings.

Notes

Sometimes we can add a reflexive pronoun to a verb that isn't normally reflexive to "intensify" its meaning or convey the sense of "getting" or "becoming":

normal:		with "se":
comer dormir ir enojar entristecer	to eat to sleep to go to anger to sadden	comerse dormirse irse enojarse entristecerse	to eat up to fall asleep to go away, to leave to get angry to become sad

When using reflexive verbs we frequently omit possessive adjectives (and use definite articles instead). The reflexive pronoun does the job of the possessive adjective.

Yo me seco mi pelo. Yo me seco el pelo. I dry my hair.

Juana se lavó sus manos. Juana se lavó las manos. Juana washed her hands.

Tú te rompiste tu brazo. Tú te rompiste el brazo. You broke your arm.

Like other pronouns, reflexive pronouns are placed before a "normal" conjugated verb, are attached to commands, and can come either before or after present participles and infinitives.

"normal" verb:	Yo me visto.	I get dressed.
command:	¡Vístete!	Get dressed!
immediate future: (infinitives)	Yo voy a vestirme. Yo me voy a vestir.	I am going to get dressed.
present progressive: (present participle)	Yo estoy vistiéndome. Yo me estoy visitiendo.	I am getting dressed.