Reflexive verbs in Italian describe actions that you perform on yourself.

Understanding how to conjugate them is a core part of learning Italian grammar.

You’ll see and hear these verbs constantly in daily conversations.

Fortunately, the rules for conjugating them follow a very predictable pattern.

I’ll show you exactly how to conjugate Italian reflexive verbs in both the present and past tenses.

What are reflexive verbs in Italian?

In Italian, a verb is reflexive when the subject performing the action is also receiving the action.

Think of it like looking in a mirror.

If you wash your own hands, you’re washing yourself.

You can easily spot a reflexive verb in its dictionary form, which is called the infinitive.

Regular Italian verbs end in -are, -ere, or -ire.

Reflexive verbs drop the final -e and add the letters -si to the end.

For example, lavare means “to wash” someone or something else.

Lavarsi means “to wash oneself”.

The Italian reflexive pronouns

To conjugate these verbs, you must use a reflexive pronoun.

These tiny words tell us who’s receiving the action.

They always match the subject of the sentence.

Here’s the full list of Italian reflexive pronouns.

Conjugating reflexive verbs in the present tense

Conjugating a reflexive verb in the present tense takes two simple steps.

First, you place the correct reflexive pronoun right before the verb.

Second, you conjugate the verb exactly as you would normally for its group (-are, -ere, or -ire).

Let’s look at the verb svegliarsi (to wake up) as an example.

Notice how the pronoun goes first, followed by the normal present tense conjugation.

Here are a few dialogue examples to show you how this looks in practice.

Conjugating reflexive verbs in the past tense

Things change slightly when you move to the passato prossimo, which is the recent past tense.

Reflexive verbs in the past tense always use the auxiliary verb essere (to be).

You can’t use avere (to have) with a reflexive verb.

Because you’re using essere, the ending of the past participle must agree with the gender and number of the subject.

If a woman is speaking about herself, the past participle ends in -a.

If a group of men is speaking about themselves, it ends in -i.

Let’s look at the verb alzarsi (to get up) in the past tense to see this rule in action.

The reflexive pronoun still goes at the very beginning of the verb phrase.

Here are some examples of reflexive verbs being used in the past tense.

Common Italian reflexive verbs to know

You’ll use reflexive verbs heavily when talking about daily routines.

They’re essential for describing your morning and evening habits to other people.

Here’s a helpful list of the most common reflexive verbs you should memorize.