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For example, the Spanish reflexive construct "se hundió el barco" ("the boat sank") has no reflexive equivalent in some Slavic languages (which use an intransitive equivalent of sink), though for example Czech and Slovak do use a reflexive verb: "loď se potopila"/"loď sa potopila". Reflexive verbs can have a variety of uses and meanings ...
A verb with a reflexive pronoun is called a reflexive verb, and has many grammatical particularities aside from the choice of pronoun; see French verbs. There are four kinds of reflexive verbs: Verbs that are inherently reflexive. For example, the verb se souvenir (' to remember ') has no non-reflexive counterpart; the verb souvenir has no ...
For most main verbs the auxiliary is (the appropriate form of) avoir ("to have"), but for reflexive verbs and certain intransitive verbs the auxiliary is a form of être ("to be"). The participle agrees with the subject when the auxiliary is être , and with a preceding direct object (if any) when the auxiliary is avoir .
In French, all compound tense-aspect forms are formed with an auxiliary verb (either être "to be" or avoir "to have"). Most verbs use avoir as their auxiliary verb. The exceptions are all reflexive verbs and a number of verbs of motion or change of state, including some of the most frequently used intransitive verbs of the language: aller ...
Reflexive verbs (or "pronominal verbs") are conjugated with être. être is used to form the passive voice . Être is itself conjugated according to the tense and mood, and this may require the use of avoir as an additional auxiliary verb, e.g. Il a été mangé (It was eaten).
French verbs have a large number of simple (one-word) forms. These are composed of two distinct parts: the stem (or root, or radix), which indicates which verb it is, and the ending (inflection), which indicates the verb's tense (imperfect, present, future etc.) and mood and its subject's person (I, you, he/she etc.) and number, though many endings can correspond to multiple tense-mood-subject ...
Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject of a verb is identical with the direct or indirect object. As in the Romance languages, reflexive constructions are often used where English would employ an intransitive verb or the passive voice. Deo adjuta les, qui se adjuta. 'God helps those who help themselves'. Io me sibila un melodia.
Sofras 'to treat oneself' is given as an example of a reflexive verb; it is not clear if the initial s is a reflexive prefix, as in French s'offrir, or part of the root. It is however invariable: jo sofra (I treat myself), to sofra (you treat yourself), etc.