How do I conjugate a pronominal verb in the present tense?

Pronominal verbs in French are usually reflexive verbs, meaning that the action of the pronominal verb is something that you do to yourself, which reflects on you. For example, “se brosser les dents” is a pronominal and reflexive verb because you brush your own teeth (usually anyway!) and you do this to yourself. The same thing applies to “se réveiller”, because usually, you wake yourself up. Pronominal verbs are also preceded by ‘se’ in the infinitive, as we can see in the two examples above, both verbs start with ‘se’. However, pronominal verbs are called pronominal because they require a pronoun to be correctly conjugated. Just like all conjugated verbs need a subject pronoun (e.g. je, tu, il), pronominal verbs need a reflexive pronoun (e.g. me, te, se, nous, vous). To conjugate a pronominal verb in the present tense, you need your verb, and your reflexive pronoun. The reflexive pronoun ALWAYS comes before the conjugated verb. So, for example, if you wanted to say, “I brush my teeth”, you would say “Je me brosse les dents”, because as we said before, ALL conjugated verbs need a subject pronoun (je), and all pronominal verbs need a reflexive pronoun (me). It’s important to note that the reflexive pronoun MUST agree in all subjects, tenses, and moods. It’s important to know this so that you are not misunderstood. For example, “je me réveille” means “I wake myself up”, but “je te réveille” means “I wake you up”, so it’s not the same thing at all! Finally, it’s important to remember that before a mute ‘h’ sound, like in ‘habiller’, the reflexive pronoun contracts and becomes m’, t’, or s’. For example, it is not “je me habille”, but “je m’habille”.

Answered by Tutor51954 D. French tutor

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