Essential Spanish Reflexive Verbs: Full List with Examples
You know the feeling: you’re mid-sentence, trying to say “I wake up at 7” or “she got dressed quickly,” and suddenly your brain stalls. Is it despierto? me despierto? Why is there a tiny me in there at all?
Spanish reflexive verbs trip up a lot of English speakers because English often skips the reflexive part. Spanish usually doesn’t. The good news: once you understand the pattern, a huge chunk of everyday conversation gets easier. Many of the verbs you use for routines, emotions, movement, and daily life are reflexive.
At VerbPal, we see the same issue again and again: learners understand the rule when reading, then miss the pronoun when they have to produce the sentence themselves. That’s why we focus so heavily on active production — typing and building full forms like me levanto and se vistió instead of just recognizing them.
Quick answer: Spanish reflexive verbs use reflexive pronouns like me, te, se, nos, os, se to show that the subject does the action to or for themselves, as in Me levanto temprano (I get up early.)
What is a reflexive verb in Spanish?
A reflexive verb is a verb where the subject and the object are the same person. In plain English, the action “comes back” to the doer.
- Me lavo. (I wash myself.)
- Te acuestas tarde. (You go to bed late.)
- Se siente mejor. (He feels better.)
In Spanish, reflexive verbs usually appear in the dictionary with -se attached:
- lavarse (to wash oneself)
- levantarse (to get oneself up)
- sentirse (to feel)
That -se tells you the verb needs a reflexive pronoun when you conjugate it.
The reflexive pronouns
Here are the pronouns you use:
- me → myself
- te → yourself
- se → himself / herself / yourself (formal) / themselves
- nos → ourselves
- os → yourselves (Spain)
- se → themselves / yourselves (plural in Latin America)
A full example with levantarse:
- Yo me levanto temprano. (I get up early.)
- Tú te levantas temprano. (You get up early.)
- Ella se levanta temprano. (She gets up early.)
- Nosotros nos levantamos temprano. (We get up early.)
When we teach this inside VerbPal, we push learners to treat the pronoun and verb as one unit from the start. That matters because reflexive accuracy is less about memorizing a definition and more about producing the whole chunk correctly under pressure.
Actionable insight: When you learn a reflexive verb, memorize it with the pronoun in the infinitive — levantarse, not just levantar.
How reflexive verbs work in real sentences
The reflexive pronoun usually goes before the conjugated verb:
- Me ducho por la mañana. (I shower in the morning.)
- Se llaman Ana y Luis. (Their names are Ana and Luis.)
But with infinitives and gerunds, you often have two valid positions:
-
Voy a acostarme temprano. (I’m going to go to bed early.)
-
Me voy a acostar temprano. (I’m going to go to bed early.)
-
Está vistiéndose. (He is getting dressed.)
-
Se está vistiendo. (He is getting dressed.)
Not every English “self” verb is reflexive in Spanish
This is where learners get caught. Spanish and English don’t map perfectly.
For example:
- English says “I shower.”
- Spanish often says Me ducho. (I shower.)
But English says “I remember,” while Spanish often says Me acuerdo. (I remember.)
That means you can’t always translate word for word. You need to learn which verbs are naturally reflexive in Spanish.
A reflexive verb is not always literally “doing something to yourself.” Sometimes it signals a routine, a change of state, or an idiomatic meaning, as with irse (to leave) or acordarse (to remember).
If you want to stop second-guessing pronoun placement, this is exactly the kind of pattern our custom drills target in VerbPal. We make you produce both options — for example, me voy a acostar and voy a acostarme — so the structure becomes usable, not just familiar.
Actionable insight: Don’t ask “Does English use ‘myself’ here?” Ask “Does Spanish normally use the reflexive form here?”
The 30 essential Spanish reflexive verbs
Below are 30 high-value Spanish reflexive verbs you’ll hear constantly. They cover routines, feelings, movement, communication, and common daily actions. If you want a wider verb foundation, pair this list with our guides on 20 basic Spanish verbs and the Super 7 Spanish verbs.
1. levantarse — to get up
Me levanto a las seis. (I get up at six.)
2. despertarse — to wake up
Nos despertamos temprano los domingos. (We wake up early on Sundays.)
3. acostarse — to go to bed
Ella se acuesta tarde entre semana. (She goes to bed late during the week.)
4. dormirse — to fall asleep
El niño se durmió en el coche. (The child fell asleep in the car.)
5. lavarse — to wash oneself
Me lavo las manos antes de comer. (I wash my hands before eating.)
6. ducharse — to shower
¿Te duchas por la mañana o por la noche? (Do you shower in the morning or at night?)
7. bañarse — to bathe / take a bath
Los niños se bañan después de la playa. (The children bathe after the beach.)
8. afeitarse — to shave
Mi padre se afeita todas las mañanas. (My father shaves every morning.)
9. peinarse — to comb one’s hair
Siempre me peino antes de salir. (I always comb my hair before leaving.)
10. cepillarse — to brush
Se cepilla los dientes después de cenar. (He brushes his teeth after dinner.)
11. vestirse — to get dressed
Nos vestimos rápido por la mañana. (We get dressed quickly in the morning.)
12. ponerse — to put on / to become
Me pongo la chaqueta porque hace frío. (I put on my jacket because it’s cold.)
13. quitarse — to take off
Quítate los zapatos, por favor. (Take off your shoes, please.)
14. maquillarse — to put on makeup
Ella se maquilla muy poco. (She wears very little makeup.)
15. sentarse — to sit down
Siéntense aquí, por favor. (Sit here, please.)
16. irse — to leave / to go away
Me voy ahora porque tengo una reunión. (I’m leaving now because I have a meeting.)
17. quedarse — to stay / remain
Nos quedamos en casa esta noche. (We’re staying home tonight.)
18. acercarse — to approach / come closer
Se acercó a la ventana para mirar afuera. (He approached the window to look outside.)
19. alejarse — to move away / go away
El perro se alejó del ruido. (The dog moved away from the noise.)
20. llamarse — to be called / to be named
Me llamo Daniel. (My name is Daniel.)
21. sentirse — to feel
Hoy me siento mucho mejor. (Today I feel much better.)
22. enojarse — to get angry
Se enoja cuando nadie lo escucha. (He gets angry when nobody listens to him.)
23. preocuparse — to worry
No te preocupes por eso. (Don’t worry about that.)
24. aburrirse — to get bored
Los estudiantes se aburren si la clase es muy larga. (Students get bored if the class is too long.)
25. divertirse — to have fun
¿Se divirtieron en la fiesta? (Did they have fun at the party?)
26. acordarse — to remember
No me acuerdo de su nombre. (I don’t remember his name.)
27. olvidarse — to forget
Se me olvidó la llave. (I forgot the key.)
28. quejarse — to complain
Siempre se queja del tráfico. (He always complains about traffic.)
29. casarse — to get married
Mi hermana se casa en junio. (My sister is getting married in June.)
30. convertirse — to become / turn into
La oruga se convierte en mariposa. (The caterpillar turns into a butterfly.)
These are exactly the kinds of high-frequency verbs we recommend learning early because they carry so much everyday speech. In VerbPal, we organize practice around useful patterns like routines, emotions, and movement so you’re not memorizing random lists in isolation.
Actionable insight: Start with the verbs tied to your own life: levantarse, ducharse, vestirse, sentirse, irse, quedarse. You’ll use them immediately.
The pattern you need to notice: pronoun + conjugated verb
To use reflexive verbs correctly, you don’t just conjugate the verb. You also match the reflexive pronoun to the subject.
Here’s despertarse in the present:
- me despierto (I wake up)
- te despiertas (you wake up)
- se despierta (he/she wakes up)
- nos despertamos (we wake up)
- os despertáis (you all wake up)
- se despiertan (they wake up)
And here’s the key: many reflexive verbs are also stem-changing or irregular. So you may need to manage both the pronoun and the verb change.
- acostarse → me acuesto
- sentirse → te sientes
- vestirse → se viste
- irse → me voy
If stem changes still feel shaky, our guide to stem-changing Spanish verbs: the boot verb pattern will help.
Here’s the cheat code: treat reflexive verbs as a two-part unit. First pick the person — me, te, se, nos, os, se. Then say the verb form. Don’t try to “add the pronoun later.” Build the sentence as one chunk: me levanto, te sientas, se fue. Tiny dog rule: pronoun first, verb second, panic never.
If you’re serious about fixing this, don’t just read the pattern — produce it. Our drills and interactive conjugation charts are built for exactly this kind of two-part accuracy, including irregulars, reflexives, and tense changes across the full system.
Actionable insight: Drill reflexive verbs in full chunks, not isolated forms. Learn me siento instead of just siento.
Reflexive vs non-reflexive: same root, different meaning
Some Spanish verbs exist in both reflexive and non-reflexive forms, and the meaning changes.
Me duermo a las once. (I fall asleep at eleven.)
Me voy ahora. (I’m leaving now.)
Me acuerdo de eso. (I remember that.)
Duermo ocho horas. (I sleep eight hours.)
Voy al trabajo. (I go to work.)
Recuerdo eso. (I remember that.)
A few especially useful contrasts:
ir vs irse
- Voy a Madrid mañana. (I’m going to Madrid tomorrow.)
- Me voy mañana. (I’m leaving tomorrow.)
dormir vs dormirse
- Duermo poco. (I sleep little.)
- Me duermo en el sofá. (I fall asleep on the couch.)
poner vs ponerse
- Pongo la mesa. (I set the table.)
- Me pongo el abrigo. (I put on my coat.)
acordar vs acordarse de
In modern everyday Spanish, learners most often need acordarse de for “to remember.”
- ¿Te acuerdas de mí? (Do you remember me?)
Actionable insight: When a verb changes meaning in reflexive form, learn the two versions as separate vocabulary items.
The body-part rule that sounds more natural in Spanish
English says:
- “I wash my hands.”
- “She brushes her teeth.”
Spanish usually says:
- Me lavo las manos. (I wash my hands.)
- Se cepilla los dientes. (She brushes her teeth.)
Notice what happened: Spanish uses the reflexive pronoun plus the definite article (las, los), not a possessive adjective like mis or sus in most normal cases.
More examples:
- Me duele la cabeza. (My head hurts.)
- Nos lavamos la cara. (We wash our faces.)
- Se quitó la camisa. (He took off his shirt.)
This pattern is one of the fastest ways to sound less translated and more natural.
If the reflexive pronoun already tells Spanish whose body or clothing you mean, Spanish often doesn’t repeat that information with mi, tu, or su.
Put it into practice
Knowing the rule is one thing — producing it under pressure is another. That’s the gap our drills are built to close. A useful way to train this pattern is to force yourself to convert literal English into natural Spanish: “I wash my hands” → me lavo las manos, not lavo mis manos. Inside VerbPal, this kind of contrast practice is built into targeted exercises, so the natural form starts to win automatically.
Practice the pattern →Actionable insight: Replace “my/your/his” with el/la/los/las after many reflexive verbs involving body parts and clothing.
Mini conjugated examples you can reuse right away
You asked for conjugated examples, so here are practical sentence frames with different persons and tenses. These help you move beyond the infinitive list.
Present tense
- Me siento cansado hoy. (I feel tired today.)
- ¿Te acuerdas de la dirección? (Do you remember the address?)
- Se viste muy elegante para trabajar. (She dresses very elegantly for work.)
- Nos quedamos aquí. (We’re staying here.)
- Se preocupan demasiado. (They worry too much.)
Preterite
- Me desperté tarde ayer. (I woke up late yesterday.)
- Te enojaste por nada. (You got angry for no reason.)
- Se fue sin decir adiós. (He left without saying goodbye.)
- Nos sentamos cerca de la puerta. (We sat near the door.)
- Se divirtieron mucho. (They had a great time.)
Imperfect
- Me acostaba temprano cuando era niño. (I used to go to bed early when I was a child.)
- Se quejaba todo el tiempo. (He used to complain all the time.)
- Nos bañábamos en el río. (We used to bathe in the river.)
Near future
- Me voy a duchar ahora. (I’m going to shower now.)
- Se van a casar en otoño. (They’re going to get married in autumn.)
If tense choice is part of the problem, review Spanish preterite vs imperfect and how many Spanish verb tenses are there?. And if you want to train beyond the present, that’s where a serious verb system matters: we cover all tenses in VerbPal, including irregulars, reflexives, and the subjunctive, so reflexive verbs don’t stay trapped in beginner examples.
Actionable insight: Practice each new reflexive verb in at least two tenses: present for daily use, preterite for real-life stories.
The most common mistakes English speakers make
1. Forgetting the pronoun
Wrong:
- Levanto a las siete. (I get up at seven.)
Right:
- Me levanto a las siete. (I get up at seven.)
2. Using the wrong pronoun
Wrong:
- Se levanto temprano. (I get up early.)
Right:
- Me levanto temprano. (I get up early.)
3. Keeping the pronoun but forgetting conjugation
Wrong:
- Me levantar temprano. (I get up early.)
Right:
- Me levanto temprano. (I get up early.)
4. Translating English too literally
Wrong:
- Lavo mis manos. (I wash my hands.)
More natural:
- Me lavo las manos. (I wash my hands.)
5. Missing the preposition some verbs require
- acordarse de → Me acuerdo de ti. (I remember you.)
- quejarse de → Se queja del ruido. (He complains about the noise.)
If you often freeze because you know the rule but can’t produce it fast enough, you’ll probably relate to why you freeze speaking Spanish and why you forget verb conjugations when speaking.
Which is more natural in Spanish: Lavo mis dientes or Me cepillo los dientes?
Actionable insight: When you make a reflexive mistake, don’t just correct the sentence. Identify which part failed: pronoun, conjugation, or natural collocation.
How to actually remember reflexive verbs
A long list helps, but lists alone don’t stick. You need repetition in context.
Here’s a better method:
1. Group by routine
Morning:
- despertarse
- levantarse
- ducharse
- vestirse
Night:
- quitarse
- lavarse
- acostarse
- dormirse
2. Group by emotion or mental state
- sentirse
- preocuparse
- enojarse
- aburrirse
- divertirse
3. Learn sentence chunks, not isolated verbs
Instead of memorizing acordarse, learn:
- No me acuerdo. (I don’t remember.)
- ¿Te acuerdas de eso? (Do you remember that?)
- Siempre se acuerda de mi cumpleaños. (He always remembers my birthday.)
4. Practice active recall
Cover the Spanish and force yourself to produce:
- “I get up early” → Me levanto temprano. (I get up early.)
- “They are getting married” → Se casan. (They are getting married.)
- “We stayed at home” → Nos quedamos en casa. (We stayed at home.)
This matters because recognition is not production. You may understand me siento when reading, then blank when speaking. That gap is exactly what targeted drills fix. For more on that, see passive recognition vs active production and how to practice verbs in context.
At VerbPal, this is the core of how we train verbs: active recall first, then spaced review using the SM-2 algorithm so the forms come back right before you’re likely to forget them. That’s especially useful with reflexives, where you’re juggling pronoun, conjugation, and sometimes a stem change at the same time.
Actionable insight: Build your review around active recall, not rereading. If you can’t produce the full chunk from English or from context, you don’t know it yet.
A simple daily drill for reflexive verbs
If you only have 10 minutes, do this:
Minute 1–2: say your routine out loud
- Me despierto a las siete. (I wake up at seven.)
- Me levanto enseguida. (I get up right away.)
- Me ducho. (I shower.)
- Me visto. (I get dressed.)
- Me voy al trabajo. (I leave for work.)
Minute 3–5: switch persons
Take one verb and run it through all persons:
- me acuesto (I go to bed)
- te acuestas (you go to bed)
- se acuesta (he/she goes to bed)
- nos acostamos (we go to bed)
- se acuestan (they go to bed)
Minute 6–8: switch tense
Use three verbs in present and preterite:
- me siento / me sentí (I feel / I felt)
- se va / se fue (he/she leaves / he/she left)
- nos quedamos / nos quedamos (we stay / we stayed)
Notice that some forms overlap; context tells you which tense you mean.
Minute 9–10: make one real sentence per verb
Use your life, not textbook filler:
- Me preocupo por mi examen de mañana. (I worry about my exam tomorrow.)
- Nos quedamos en casa los viernes. (We stay home on Fridays.)
- ¿Te acuerdas de ese restaurante? (Do you remember that restaurant?)
This kind of short, consistent practice works better than binge-studying giant tables once a week. If you want a repeatable system, our posts on 15-minute daily routine for verb conjugations and how to use spaced repetition for verb conjugations go deeper. And if you want that routine handled for you, VerbPal is available on iOS and Android, with a 7-day free trial, so you can turn this exact kind of daily reflexive practice into a habit without building your own system from scratch.
Actionable insight: Tie reflexive practice to your actual day. The more personal the sentence, the faster it sticks.
Final takeaway
Spanish reflexive verbs look intimidating at first, but the core system is simple: reflexive pronoun + conjugated verb. Once you internalize that pattern, a lot of everyday Spanish opens up fast.
If you focus on the 30 essential reflexive verbs in this guide, you’ll cover a huge amount of real conversation: waking up, getting dressed, leaving, staying, remembering, worrying, feeling, and more. That’s not obscure grammar. That’s daily Spanish.
The goal isn’t to admire the list. It’s to make forms like me levanto, te acuerdas, se fue, and nos sentimos come out without hesitation.
FAQ
How do you know if a Spanish verb is reflexive?
If the dictionary form ends in -se, like levantarse or sentirse, it’s reflexive. In a sentence, it will usually appear with a reflexive pronoun such as me, te, se, nos.
Do reflexive verbs always mean “to oneself”?
No. Sometimes they do, as in me lavo (“I wash myself”). But often they express routines, emotional states, or idiomatic meanings, like irse (“to leave”) or acordarse de (“to remember”).
Why does Spanish say me lavo las manos instead of lavo mis manos?
Because Spanish often uses the reflexive pronoun to show whose body part is involved, then uses the definite article: las manos, la cara, los dientes. That’s the natural pattern in everyday Spanish.
What are the most important Spanish reflexive verbs to learn first?
Start with high-frequency daily verbs: levantarse, despertarse, ducharse, vestirse, acostarse, sentirse, irse, quedarse, acordarse, and preocuparse. They’ll show up constantly in real conversations.
Where can I practice Spanish reflexive verbs?
You can practice them with targeted drills in VerbPal, review forms in the Spanish conjugation tables, or explore more grammar guides in the VerbPal blog. If you want structured daily practice, we offer a 7-day free trial on iOS and Android.