{"id":94260,"date":"2023-07-13T22:23:32","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T02:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/reflexive-verbs-german\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T10:55:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T14:55:00","slug":"reflexive-verbs-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/german\/reflexive-verbs-german\/","title":{"rendered":"German Reflexive Verbs: Types, Conjugation and Grammar Essentials"},"content":{"rendered":"

In German, you talk about yourself\u2014or reference other selves\u2014by using reflexive verbs, with the help of a reflexive pronoun.<\/p>\n

You’ve probably come across German reflexive verbs quite often in your studies, as some of them are commonplace, helping describe some daily tasks we complete and express the proper sentiment.<\/p>\n

Reflexive verbs and their corresponding pronouns build upon the knowledge base you\u2019ve hopefully already established when it comes to the accusative and dative cases. So let’s get right into it.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Basics of German Reflexive Verbs<\/h2>\n

In English, verbs\u00a0are only<\/strong> reflexive<\/a> when they\u2019re paired with a reflexive pronoun such as themselves<\/strong> and ourselves<\/strong>. For example: \u201cThe dog licks himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

In German, it\u2019s much easier to recognize reflexive verbs.<\/p>\n

This infinitive form of the verb will be accompanied by a reflexive pronoun<\/strong>, typically written as sich<\/em>. A common German reflexive verb is sich waschen<\/em>, which means “to wash oneself.”<\/p>\n

German reflexive verbs can be accusative<\/a> and\/or dative<\/a>, depending on the context of the sentence. It\u2019s important to know the case of the verb so that you can choose the correct reflexive pronoun, which, of course, refers back to the subject of the sentence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How to Determine the Correct Reflexive Pronoun<\/h2>\n

In German, reflexive pronouns reflect the case of the reflexive verb. Some reflexive verbs have a determined case, while others can change between accusative and dative, depending on what\u2019s going on in the sentence.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll touch more on that in a second\u2014first, here\u2019s a list of the accusative and dative reflexive pronouns you\u2019ll use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
English<\/th>Accusative<\/th>Dative<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
myself<\/td>mich<\/em><\/td>mir<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
yourself (informal)<\/td>dich<\/em><\/td>dir<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
himself\/herself\/itself<\/td>sich<\/em><\/td>sich<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ourselves<\/td>uns<\/em><\/td>uns<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
yourselves<\/td>euch<\/em><\/td>euch<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
themselves<\/td>sich<\/em><\/td>sich<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
yourself (formal)<\/td>Sich<\/em><\/td>Sich<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

The only difference between the two sets of reflexive pronouns lies in the “myself” and “yourself (informal)” forms. Mich<\/em> changes to mir<\/em> and dich<\/em> changes to dir<\/em>. The rest stays the same.<\/p>\n

That being said, don\u2019t confuse these reflexive pronouns with accusative and dative personal pronouns<\/a>, which aren’t reflexive.<\/p>\n

How to Conjugate German Reflexive Verbs<\/h2>\n

Like any other German verb, reflexive verbs have an infinitive form, which is conjugated to the subject. However, though the conjugated verb takes the second position, as is normal, the reflexive pronoun follows directly after. Let\u2019s take a look at some examples.<\/p>\n

Accusative Reflexive Verbs and Pronouns<\/h3>\n

The verb sich duschen\u00a0<\/em>means “to shower.” It’s an accusative reflexive verb.<\/p>\n

If we wanted to say, “I showered yesterday,” we’d use ich<\/em>\u00a0and the corresponding accusative form of the “myself” reflexive pronoun (mich)<\/em> to complete the sentence. After conjugating duschen<\/em> to the ich<\/em> form, say in simple past, we’d have:<\/p>\n

Ich duschte mich gestern.<\/em> (I showered yesterday.)<\/p>\n

But let’s say you wanted to tell someone, “They showered yesterday,” so that they need to shower again today. We can use the same sentence structure, but just replace the subject and reflexive pronoun, and conjugate the verb duschen<\/em> to the “they” plural form:<\/p>\n

Sie duschten sich gestern.<\/em> (They showered yesterday.)<\/p>\n

Dative Reflexive Verbs and Pronouns<\/h3>\n

In the dative case, the formula is similar. We need the dative forms of the reflexive pronoun, rather than the accusative forms.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s use sich etwas brechen<\/em>, or \u201cto break something,\u201d as an example since it’s dative.<\/p>\n

Ich brach mir das Bein heute Morgen.<\/em> (I broke my leg this morning.)<\/p>\n

Again, we use the simple past tense of brechen<\/em>, conjugated to the ich<\/em> form, and place the dative reflexive pronoun\u00a0(mir)<\/em> directly after the reflexive verb.<\/em><\/p>\n

Notice, however, that we didn\u2019t use mein Bein<\/em>. This is because the reflexive pronoun mir<\/em> indicates whose leg was broken. Directly translated, the German sentence above reads, \u201cI broke myself the leg today morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit like a sentence map, where the speaker points back at themselves and to the specific body part to let the audience know what the action is referring to.<\/p>\n

It can be a bit tricky to get used to first, but you’ll get it with practice. To see how native speakers use these reflexive verbs in context, check out FluentU.<\/p>\n

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