French Reflexive Pronouns
- myself, yourself, him/herself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves.

French Reflexive Pronouns and Verbs

In the French language, there are certain verbs that are considered reflexive and they use the French Possessive Pronouns to show that the object of the verb is the same as the subject - so that one does something to oneself.

If you say “I brush teeth” (je brosse les dents), you would be saying is that "I brush all the teeth in the world".

To say “I brush my teeth”, you have to say, “je me brosse les dents.” This translates literally as: I brush myself the teeth”.

The French Reflexive Pronouns are:

French Reflexive Pronouns

English Subject	English Reflexive Pronoun	French Subject	French Reflexive Pronoun
I	(to) myself	je	me
you (informal, singular)	(to) yourself	tu	te
he/she/it	(to) him/her/its/ one-self	il/elle/on	se
we	(to) ourselves	nous	nous
you (formal)	(to) yourself/yourselves	vous	vous
they	(to) themselves	ils/elles	se

• me, te, se change to m' , t' , s' before a vowel or the letter 'h'.

• the French Reflexive Pronouns can be either direct or indirect objects.

• the reflexive pronouns go before the verb.

• When conjugated a reflexive verb in the passé composé, reflexive verbs use être, not avoir, and the past participle must agree in number and gender with the subject.

Verbs that are reflexive appear in their infinitive form with the reflexive pronoun se. The more common reflexive verbs are:

French verb	English
se brosser	to brush oneself
s’habiller	to dress oneself
se déshabiller	to undress oneself
se réveiller	to wake oneself
s’asseoir	to sit down
se coucher	to go to bed
se doucher	to take a shower
se casser	to break, like a bone
se marier	to get married
se souvenir de	to remember

Some examples of French Possessive Pronouns:

Je me réveille à 7 heures. - I wake up at 7 o’clock. (literally, I wake myself up).
Tu t’assieds ici. - You sit here. (you sit yourself here).
Elle se marie avec Jacques. - She is marrying Jacques. (she is marrying herself to Jacques).
Nous nous souvenons votre nom. - We remember your name. (we remember ourselves your name).
Vous vous se couchez à quelle heure? - You go to bed at what time? (You put yourself to bed at what time?)
Ils se douchent chaque matin. - They shower every morning. (They shower themselves every morning).

More French grammar lessons like this one French Possessive Pronouns