Rylan:	Dis-moi, Valérie, comment fais-tu pour supporter la chaleur ?
Valérie:	Je ne me plains pas. Je préfère la chaleur que le froid !
Rylan:	Moi non. En plus, ma clim est tombée en panne. J'attends depuis une semaine que le réparateur me rappelle et je ne m’habitue toujours pas à la chaleur. Je n'en dors plus la nuit.
Valérie:	Je me mets à ta place… C'est pas facile mais tu sais il y a peu de personnes dans le monde qui s’offrent le luxe d'avoir la clim chez eux.

Pronominal verbs or “verbes pronominaux” also called reflexive verbs hold an important part in the French language. They are always used with reflexive pronouns that replace the subject only. These are me, m’, te, t’, se, s’, nous, vous. Throughout this chapter we will explore the use, the form and the types of the pronominal verbs. We will also learn how to conjugate the pronominal verbs into the present simple, the passé composé, the imperfect tense, the future simple, the subjunctive, the imperative, the present and past conditional.

A verb in the prenominal form conjugates to the present simple the same way as a regular verb does. We only have to add the reflexive pronouns to the verb.

Let’s conjugate the verb “se lever” in the present simple and the verb “lever” and see the difference between the two in terms of the form.

se lever	lever
Je me lève	Je lève
Tu te lèves	Tu lèves
Il se lève	Il lève
Elle se lève	Elle lève
On se lève	On lève
Nous nous levons	Nous levons
Vous vous levez	Vous levez
Ils se lèvent	Ils lèvent
Elles se lèvent	Elles lèvent

You notice that the only difference in terms of the form between “lever” and “se lever” is the reflexive pronouns: me, te, se, nous, vous, se.

Let’s conjugate another verb that can only be pronominal. In other words, it is always preceded with a reflexive pronoun.

The verb “s’enfuir”

Je		m’enfuis
Tu		t’enfuis
Il		s’enfuit
Elle		s’enfuit
On		s’enfuit
Nous		nous enfuyons
Vous		vous enfuyez
Ils		s’enfuient
Elles		s’enfuient

Now let’s see the difference in terms of the meaning between the verbs “lever” and “se lever” using the following examples:

Il se lève tous les jours à 7h du matin.
He always gets up at 7am.

Il lève l’ancre et se dirige vers le nord.
He raises the anchor and heads north.

You see that just by adding “se” to the verb “lever” the meaning of the verb completely changes.

Let’s take another example:

Nous nous lavons souvent dans ce lac.
We often bathe in this lake.

Nous lavons souvent notre linge dans ce lac.
We often wash our clothes in this lake.

In the first example, “se laver” means wash one’s body or bathe, whereas in the second example “laver” means “wash” something or someone.

More examples:

Mon patron se prend pour le nombril du monde.
My boss thinks the world revolves around him.

Mon patron prend rarement son déjeuner avec nous.
My boss rarely has lunch with us.

In the first sentence, my boss “se prend”, which literally means “takes himself” or “considers himself” as the center of the world which translates idiomatically to “ thinks the world revolves around him”. Now, in the second sentence, “prendre” is a transitive verb that needs a direct object and in this case, it needs the direct object “son déjeuner”. That’s why we put “prendre” and not “se prendre” because “se prendre” literally means “take oneself”.

Interrogative form

As you know there are three ways of asking questions in French:

The est-ce que form: Standard form The subject/verb or auxiliary inversion: Formal form The intonation: Colloquial form

The “est-ce que form: To ask questions using the “est-ce que form” with pronominal verbs in the present simple, we simply add “est-ce que” to the question.

For example:

Est-ce que vous vous levez à 7h du matin ?
Do you get up at 7 am?

The inversion form: Let’s take the following example: se coucher

Te couches-tu à 10h du soir ? Se couche-t-il à 10h du soir ? Se couche-t-elle à 10h du soir ? Se couche-t-on à 10h du soir ? Nous couchons-nous à 10h du soir ? Vous couchez-vous à 10h du soir ? Se couchent-ils à 10h du soir ?

We don’t usually use the inversion with “je” in the present simple with pronominal verbs.

Remember: Don’t forget the linking letter “t” with “il, elle, on” for the forms of the verbs that do not end with the letter “t”.

As for the intonation, we just keep the same sentence and add the interrogation mark at the end when we write or we add the intonation of a question when we talk.

For example:

Tu te prends pour qui ?
Who do you think you are?

The Negative Form

Let’s conjugate the verb “ne pas se laver” in the present simple:

Je		ne me lave pas
Tu		ne te laves pas
Il		ne se laves pas
Nous		ne nous lavons pas
Vous		ne vous lavez pas
Ils		ne se lavent pas

As you can see, the negative form is obtained by putting the pronominal verb between “ne” and “pas”.