[Originally posted on 12/13/13 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by DXLi]
In this unit, you’ll see a lot of pronominal verbs where the subject and the object are the same. These require a reflexive pronoun to complete their meaning. For example:
- Je me lève = I get up (I raise up myself)
- Nous nous promenons = We walk (We walk ourselves)
- Tu te reposes = You are resting (You rest yourself)
This grammatical structure is called the pronominal voice, and it’s common in French but rare in English. That’s because we usually omit the direct object and use the active voice.
Anyways, here are the main things to know about pronominal verbs:
#1: The reflexive pronoun always matches the subject.
- The reflexive pronouns are: me/te/se/nous/vous/se.
- This is why you see a lot of nous nous and vous vous business.
- Se is used for all third-persons: him, her, them, Billy-Bob, etc.
- Se becomes s’ when followed by a vowel or mute H.
#2: There are three kinds of pronominal verbs.
- Reflexive verbs, like those first three examples.
- Reciprocal verbs, where there are multiple subjects acting together. For example, Ils s’adorent = They adore each other.
- Idiomatic pronominal verbs, which are standard transitive verbs that take on a special meaning when you use them reflexively. (For more info, check the link.)
#3: Some reflexive verbs can be used non-reflexively.
- Elle se promène. = She’s taking a walk.
- Elle promène le chien. = She’s taking the dog for a walk.
#4: Most reflexive verbs have to do with parts of the body, clothing, personal circumstance, or location…
…but you’ll probably end up just having to memorize them. (See the list in the link below.)
[Shamelessly plagiarized from http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/pronominalverbs.htm]
Duolinguists 