B1 · The verb: present tense and stem
Verbs that are always reflexive
sich beeilen, sich erinnern, sich befinden
A group of verbs whose reflexive pronoun is not an object at all — it is part of the verb.
German has two kinds of reflexive verb. In the first, the pronoun is a genuine object and can be replaced: Ich wasche mich against Ich wasche das Kind. In the second, the pronoun cannot be replaced by anything, because it is simply part of the verb: sich beeilen, sich erinnern, sich befinden, sich bedanken, sich weigern. There is no such thing as "jemanden beeilen".
These are the ones to learn as a unit, with sich written in front, exactly as a dictionary lists them. Many of them also bring a preposition — sich erinnern an, sich freuen über, sich kümmern um — so a single entry carries the verb, the reflexive pronoun, the preposition and its case.
The pronoun is accusative unless another accusative object is already present, in which case it becomes dative: Ich wasche mich but Ich wasche mir die Hände. Only the first and second person singular show the difference at all — mich / mir, dich / dir — because sich covers both cases everywhere else.
Die Form
| accusative | ich beeile mich, du beeilst dich |
| third person, both cases | er beeilt sich, sie beeilen sich |
| plural | wir beeilen uns, ihr beeilt euch |
| dative | ich merke mir, du merkst dir |
| with a second object | Ich wasche mir die Hände. |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
A truly reflexive verb has no version without the pronoun.
Beeil dich!Hurry up!
The pronoun is accusative unless another accusative object is present.
Ich putze mir die Zähne.I am brushing my teeth.
sich covers third person and the polite form, in both cases.
Setzen Sie sich bitte.Please take a seat.
The pronoun stands early in the middle field, before most other elements.
Ich habe mich gestern sehr geärgert.I was very annoyed yesterday.
Genauer hingesehen
Where German is reflexive and English is not
A long list of everyday German verbs is reflexive where the English is not: sich setzen to sit down, sich hinlegen to lie down, sich anziehen to get dressed, sich ausruhen to rest, sich verspäten to be late, sich irren to be wrong. In each case English has folded the reflexive into the verb and German has not.
The reverse also happens, less often: English "enjoy yourself" is plain Viel Spaß in German, and "behave yourself" is Benimm dich — which is reflexive after all. The safest habit is simply to record the pronoun when the verb is first met, because no rule predicts membership of the group.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
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the verb has a body part as its object
the reflexive pronoun goes into the dative and no possessive is used.
Ich habe mir das Bein gebrochen.I broke my leg.
German marks whose body part it is with the dative rather than with "my".
-
the meaning is reciprocal
the plural pronoun means "each other".
Wir treffen uns um acht.We are meeting at eight.
German uses the same forms for reflexive and reciprocal, and context decides.
Woran man es erkennt
- sich
- mich
- dich
- uns
- euch
- mir
- dir
Beispielsätze
Wir müssen uns beeilen.We have to hurry.
Erinnerst du dich an sie?Do you remember her?
Das Museum befindet sich am Markt.The museum is on the market square.
Ich bedanke mich herzlich.Thank you very much.
Er hat sich geweigert.He refused.
Noch 6 Beispielsätze
Setz dich doch.Do sit down.
Sie hat sich verspätet.She was late.
Ich ziehe mich schnell um.I will just get changed.
Kümmerst du dich darum?Will you take care of that?
Wir haben uns lange nicht gesehen.We have not seen each other for a long time.
Da irrst du dich.You are wrong there.
Besonderheiten (2)
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sich lets German avoid the passive
A reflexive can stand in for a passive when nobody in particular is doing the acting: <z>Das Problem hat sich gelöst</z>, <z>Die Tür öffnet sich</z>, <z>Das Buch verkauft sich gut</z>. It is lighter than <z>wird gelöst</z> and extremely common in writing.
-
The pronoun is not stressed
In <z>Ich wasche mich</z> the pronoun carries no stress and adds no emphasis. To say that you and nobody else did it, German adds <z>selbst</z>: <z>Ich habe es mir selbst gesagt</z>. Confusing the two produces sentences that sound oddly insistent.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Without the pronoun the sentence means something else entirely: jemanden an etwas erinnern is to remind somebody, and sich an etwas erinnern is to remember. Dropping mich therefore does not produce a mistake that gets corrected — it produces a different, grammatical sentence that says the opposite of what was meant. This is the reason the pronoun belongs in the vocabulary entry rather than in a rule.
Learn it as sich beeilen, never as beeilen.
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