{"id":16971,"date":"2018-09-04T17:45:09","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T15:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=16971"},"modified":"2018-09-04T17:47:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T15:47:39","slug":"reflexive-verbs-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/reflexive-verbs-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflexive Verbs – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

You won’t get very far in Italian without reflexive verbs. Many are fundamental to everyday conversation, and not too difficult to grasp, others are more obscure and can be hard to conjugate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mi chiamo<\/strong> Geoff<\/strong> (my name is Geoff, literally: I call myself Geoff<\/em>). This is probably one of the first Italian phrases that I learnt. If Italian is you first encounter with a Romance language, it may seem a bit odd to say ‘I call myself ___’, but it’s a useful introduction to an important group of Italian verbs know as verbi riflessivi<\/strong> (reflexive verbs).
\nVerbi riflessivi<\/strong> are used when the subject carries out an action on him\/herself. Essential to their usage is a knowledge of reflexive pronouns, not to be confused with the very similar indirect pronouns<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Pronomi riflessivi <\/strong>(reflexive pronouns)<\/span>:
\nmi<\/strong> = myself
\nti<\/strong> = yourself (informal<\/em>)
\nsi<\/strong> = himself\/herself\/itself\/yourself
\nci =<\/strong> ourselves
\nvi = <\/strong>yourselves
\nsi =<\/strong> themselves<\/p>\n

Let’s continue with the reflexive verb chiamarsi<\/strong> (to call oneself) as an example of how these verbs function. Chiamarsi<\/strong> is constructed from the verb chiamare<\/strong> (to call) + the third person singular reflexive pronoun = si <\/strong>(himself\/herself\/itself\/yourself).<\/p>\n

Now we’ll compare the regular verb chiamare<\/strong> with its reflexive counterpart chiamarsi<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Here are the present tense conjugations of the verb chiamare<\/strong> (to call):<\/span>
\nio chiamo<\/strong> = I call
\ntu chiami<\/strong> = you (singular, informal<\/em>) call
\nlui\/lei chiama<\/strong> = he\/she\/it calls
\nnoi chiamiamo<\/strong> = we call
\nvoi chiamate<\/strong> = you (plural<\/em>) call
\nloro chiamano<\/strong> = they call<\/p>\n

Here are the present tense conjugations of the reflexive verb chiamarsi<\/strong> (to call oneself)<\/span>
\nio mi<\/span> chiamo<\/strong> = I call myself
\ntu ti<\/span> chiami<\/strong> = you (singular, informal<\/em>) call yourself
\nlui\/lei si<\/span> chiama<\/strong> = he\/she\/it calls himself\/herself\/itself\/yourself
\nnoi ci<\/span> chiamiamo<\/strong> = we call ourselves
\nvoi vi<\/span> chiamate<\/strong> = you (plural<\/em>) call yourselves
\nloro si<\/span> chiamano<\/strong> = they call themselves<\/p>\n

Do you see how the reflexive pronouns<\/span> come into play in chiamarsi<\/strong>? Note that although we usually say mi chiamo<\/strong>, ti chiami<\/strong> etc. we can give this phrase more emphasis by using io mi chiamo<\/strong>, tu ti chiami<\/strong> etc.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Noi ci chiamiamo il Gruppo Salvagatti di Valdantena<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Here are a few more examples using present tense conjugations of chiamarsi<\/strong>:
\ncome si chiamano di cognome?<\/strong> = what is their surname (literally: how do they call themselves by surname<\/em>)
\nio sono Sara e la mia amica si chiama Luisa<\/strong> = I’m Sara and my friend is called Luisa (Literally: and my friend calls herself Luisa<\/em>)
\nnoi ci chiamiamo il Gruppo Salvagatti di Valdantena<\/strong> = we call ourselves the Cat Saver Group of Valdantena<\/p>\n

Here are some more useful reflexive verbs:<\/span>
\nabituarsi a<\/strong> = to get used to
\naccontentarsi di<\/strong> = to be satisfied with
\naddormentarsi<\/strong> = to go to sleep
\nallontanarsi<\/strong> = to move away
\nalzarsi<\/strong> = to get up
\nannoiarsi<\/strong> = to get bored
\narrabbiarsi<\/strong> = to get angry
\naspettarsi di<\/strong> = to expect
\nbruciarsi<\/strong> = to burn oneself
\ncambiarsi<\/strong> = to change clothes
\nchiedersi<\/strong> = to wonder
\ndimenticarsi<\/strong> = to forget
\ndivertirsi<\/strong> = to have fun
\ndomandarsi<\/strong> = to ask oneself
\nfarsi i capelli<\/strong> = to do one’s hair
\nfarsi il bagno<\/strong> = to bathe oneself
\nfarsi la barba<\/strong> = to shave oneself
\nfarsi male<\/strong> = to hurt oneself
\nfidanzarsi<\/strong> = to get engaged
\nlamentarsi<\/strong> = to complain
\nlavarsi<\/strong> = to wash oneself
\noccuparsi di<\/strong> = to take care of
\npettinarsi<\/strong> = to comb oneself
\npreoccuparsi di<\/strong> = to worry about
\nprepararsi a<\/strong> = to get ready to
\npresentarsi a<\/strong> = to introduce oneself
\nrassegnarsi a<\/strong> = to resign oneself to
\nrendersi conto di<\/strong> = to realize, to become aware of
\nricordarsi di<\/strong> = to remember about\/to
\nriposarsi<\/strong> = to rest
\nsbagliarsi<\/strong> = to be mistaken
\nsbrigarsi<\/strong> = to hurry
\nscordarsi<\/strong> = to forget
\nsdraiarsi<\/strong> = to lie down
\nsedersi<\/strong> = to sit
\nsentirsi<\/strong> = to feel
\nsposarsi con<\/strong> = to get married to
\nsvegliarsi<\/strong> = to wake up
\ntagliarsi<\/strong> = to cut oneself
\nvantarsi di<\/strong> = to boast
\nvestirsi<\/strong> = to get dressed<\/p>\n

If you follow the same structure given for chiamarsi<\/strong> you should be able to conjugate any of the above. Here are a few examples:
\nalzarsi<\/strong> = to get up: a che ora ti alzi?<\/strong> what time do you get up? … mi alzo alle sette e mezza<\/strong> = I get up at seven thirty
\nlamentarsi<\/strong> = to complain: lei si lamenta troppo!<\/strong> = she complains too much!
\nriposarsi<\/strong> = to rest: abbiamo fatto una lunga passeggiata, ora ci riposiamo<\/strong> = we’ve done a long walk, now we’ll rest
\nvestirsi<\/strong> = to get dressed: i bimbi si vestono molto lentamente<\/strong> = the children dress themselves very slowly<\/p>\n

In part 2 we’ll take a look at how we conjugate reflexive verbs in the imperative, the infinitive and the past tense<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

You won’t get very far in Italian without reflexive verbs. Many are fundamental to everyday conversation, and not too difficult to grasp, others are more obscure and can be hard to conjugate. Mi chiamo Geoff (my name is Geoff, literally: I call myself Geoff). This is probably one of the first Italian phrases that I…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":17038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[747,474398],"class_list":["post-16971","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-italian-reflexive-verbs","tag-verbi-riflessivi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16971"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17040,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16971\/revisions\/17040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}