uni8887

[merry glen]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[edgy dew]

That depends on the reflexive. For some verbs, it's when the object refers to the subject:
« Je dis la vérité à Emma (I tell the truth to Emma) » versus « Je me dis la vérité (I tell the truth to myself) »

For others, verbs are reflexive because the object acts on parts of the subject.
« Nous nous téléphonons chaque jour. »
This implies that in a group, say between me and my five mates, we all contact one another.

[haughty fog]

As the name implies, the verb describes the action that you apply on yourself.
In other words, you don't act on someone else or on something, you do it on yourself.
This is one of a few types of pronominal verbs.

So in order to use a reflexive verb, the base verb needs to be transitive in order to have a grammatical object to apply the action, object that turns into the reflexive pronoun.

There are four types of pronominal verbs:

• Reflexive verbs. I already explained what they are.
• Reciprocal verbs: There needs to be at least two persons. One person does an action on the other, and the same other person does the action back on you. There is the expression "each other" in English that expresses the same concept. Se téléphoner, se parler, etc.
• Passive role: The subject doesn't actually do the action on itself (because it can't), the action is simply being done on it passively. Example: Cela ne se dit pas en anglais.
• Essentially pronominal verbs: It's a class of verbs that don't exist without the pronoun, like se souvenir.

Ah, some reflexive verbs became idiomatic, i.e. their meanings differ from the ones of their base verbs. S'appeler (call oneself, be named) is one of them.

As to how to use a pronominal verb, you conjugate the verb normally and also make sure to change the pronoun to match the subject (because you have to talk about the same person or people for the grammatical subject and object).
Je => me
Tu => te
Il/elle/on => se
Nous => nous
Vous => vous
Ils/elles => se

Let's take the verb s'appeler:
Je m'appelle
Tu t'appelles
Il/elle/on s'appelle
Nous nous appelons
Vous vous appelez
Ils/elles s'appellent