12/28/2015

French pronominal verbs (French reflexive & reciprocal verbs) - a summary - Learn French

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French pronominal verbs (French reflexive & reciprocal

verbs) - a summary
AUGUST 10, 2015 | By Camille Chevalier-Karfis (http://www.frenchtoday.com/author/camille-chevalier-karfis) | 5 Comments
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French pronominal verbs are sometimes confusing for English speakers because the corresponding English verb is not
pronominal, or the meaning of the French pronominal verb may be different from the meaning of the French base verb.

1 What is a pronominal verb ?

Pronominal verbs offer a twist on a base verb. So the first thing to do is to memorize the meaning of the base verb.
Lets look at an example:
. raser (base verb) to shave another person (someone else, not yourself)
Autrefois, le barbier rasait la barbe de mon grand-pre.
In the past, the barber shaved my grand-fathers beard.
. se raser (corresponding pronominal verb) to shave yourself
Mon oncle se rase tous les matins.
My uncle shaves every morning.
The pronoun se is used before the verb to show that my uncle doesnt shave someone else, he shaves himself.
The full conjugation of the verb in the present tense is:
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12/28/2015

French pronominal verbs (French reflexive & reciprocal verbs) - a summary - Learn French

Je me rase, tu te rases, il se rase,

Nous nous rasons, vous vous rasez, ils se rasent.
These nous nous, vous vous are very weird for a student, but they sound perfectly fine for a French native.

2 Pronominal versus reciprocal verbs

Lets look at some terms. They look scary but theyre not actually very difficult because they are quite logical:

. Pronominal Verb
Pronominal is an adjective, it means having a pronoun. As we have just seen, pronominal verbs have a special pronoun before the verb:
me, te, se, nous, vous, se (in addition to the subject pronoun je, te, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles).
Some verbs can only be conjugated in a pronominal form (eg senfuir to flee) but most verbs have a base verb.

. Base Verb
Raser is the base verb and se raser is the pronominal form of it.

. Reflexive Verb
Reflexive is an adjective, it means reflecting. It shows that the action is carried out on the person who is doing the action. Reflexive
verb is an alternative name for pronominal verbs like se raser.

. Reciprocal Verb
Reciprocal is an adjective, it means done by both sides to each other or felt by both sides about each other.
Reciprocal verb is an alternative name for pronominal verbs such as saimer.
Ils saiment depuis dix ans
They have been in love (they have loved each other) for 10 years.

3 What are the main points to be aware of about these verbs?

A. You Have To Understand The Meaning Of The Base Verb
The meaning of most pronominal verbs has some connection with the meaning of the base verb, so when youve learnt the base verb,
automatically youll have some idea what the corresponding pronominal verb means.
Unfortunately, there is a fairly small number of idiomatic pronominal verbs (about 40 common ones), for which the meaning of the
pronominal verbs doesnt have a clear connection with the meaning of the base verb. This is one reason why French pronominal verbs are
sometimes confusing for English speakers.
For example, emporter means to take something away; to take something with you but the corresponding pronominal verb semporter
means to lose ones temper, to become angry, e.g. Il semporte souvent he often loses his temper (But even then, there might be some
vague connection with the English expression to get carried away?)

B. Pronominal Verbs Are Much More Common In French Than They Are In English
Another reason why these French verbs can be confusing for English speakers is because their counterpart in English may not be reflexive or
reciprocal. For example, none of the examples above (se raser, saimer, semporter) is reflexive or reciprocal in English. In English, we simply
say: my uncle shaves every morning, they have been in love for ten years, heoften loses his temper.
My tip when memorizing a pronominalverb, try to use it in a sentence, and memorize that sentence. It will be easier to remember that this
particular verb is used in a reflexive way in French.

C. Conjugation With tre In Compound Tenses

In compound tenses (e.g. the pass compos):
all pronominal verbs use the auxiliary verb tre (http://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/etre-versus-avoir-french-auxiliary-verbs-pasttenses)
you will need to make the past participle of the pronominal verb agree with the subject of the verb in gender and in number, unless its
followed by a direct object.
Camille sest coiffe (Camille combed herself)
Camille sest coiff les cheveux (Camille combed her hair)

4 final notes
A. Avoiding The Passive Voice
. We have seen that pronominal verbs are used much more in French than they are in English. However, there is an unexpected bonus: quite
a few of them can be used to avoid the passive voice in French. An example of the passive voice: white wine is drunk by Richard.
(Compare this with the active voice: Richard drinks white wine).
French people do not like the passive voice and have a number of ways of avoiding it. If you can avoid the passive voice with a pronominal
verb in the way that the French do themselves, your teachers (and examiners!) should be mightily impressed. For example, you could use it
like this: le vin blanc se boit froid white wine is best drunk cold.

B.In Conclusion
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French pronominal verbs (French reflexive & reciprocal verbs) - a summary - Learn French

B.In Conclusion
The key to mastering French pronominal verbs is to practice, but practice with audio! The reflexive pronouns glide a lot in spoken modern
French with the subject pronoun and the verb, so you need to learn their modern pronunciation
(http://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/modern-pronunciation-french-object-pronouns-le-la-les-lui-leur). A whole section of my audio lesson
French Verb Fundamentals (http://www.frenchtoday.com/learn-french/french-audio-lessons/french-verbs-fundamentals) is dedicated to
French pronominal verbs including lists of common reflexive/reciprocal verbs, the 40 idiomatic common ones, and many exercises to help
you conquer French pronominal verbs.

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Camille Chevalier-Karfis
Born and raised in Paris, I have been teaching today's French to adults for 19 years in the US, France, and to people around the world over
the phone and by Skype . My method is proven and unique, and, based on my students' goals and needs, I've developed high quality
French audiobooks (/learning-french/french-audio-books) and French audio lessons for all levels. Good luck with your studies and
remember, repetition is the key!
All blog posts from Camille Chevalier-Karfis... (http://www.frenchtoday.com/author/camille-chevalier-karfis)

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