#20 (ENG) Reflexive Pronouns + Adverbs of Sequence

The Spanish Podcast

EXERCISES FROM THE PREVIOUS EPISODE

1. Mañana (ir/yo) ________________ a la escuela.
2. Los trabajadores (construir/ellos) ______________________ un edificio.
3. Pedro (ser/él) _______________ muy tozudo (stubborn).
4. ¿(Convencer/nosotros) _____________________ a mamá de ir al cine?
5. (Hacer/yo) _____________________ la cena, todo bien
6. (Conducir/tú) _______________________ todos los días a la escuela.
7. (Ir/nosotros) ___________________ a la playa?

GRAMMAR
Reflexive Pronouns

These pronouns help us to indicate the subject is performing an action on themselves. Given this, the reflexive pronoun must always be in the same correlation with the subject in person and also number.

(Yo) me

(Tú) te

(Él/ella/usted) le

(nosotros/as) nos

(vosotros/as) os

(ellos/as) les

In order to use a reflexive pronoun, we need to pay attention to the verb we are conjugating. For example, if the verb is a reflexive one, we must use a reflexive pronoun. But, how do we know if a verb is reflexive? The verb must have the "se" ending in its base form or infinitive.
Example:
mirar = not reflexive
mirarse = reflexive

The conjugation works a usual, no need to add anything to the verb when you conjugate it. The "se" ending only helps us to identify the verb as reflexive, and to use the corresponding reflexive pronoun, when we have to use it. A conjugation for the verb "despertarse" could be the following:
Yo me despierto
Tú te despiertas
Él se despierta
Nosotros nos despertamos
Vosotros os despertáis
Ellos se despiertan
The verbs despertar is "to wake", but if we say despertarse, it means that someone wakes himself/herself/themselves/etc. up.
Adverbs of Sequence

Adverbs of sequence are super useful when we one to talk about a sequence in time, especially talking about a story or a routine. Especially in the last one, when we talk about things we do in our everyday life, we tend to talk a lot about things we do when we wake up, go to bed, take a shower, etc. And most of these activities we perform on ourselves are actually used with a reflexive verb and of course, a reflexive pronoun.

Primero: First
primero que todo: First of all
segundo: Second
tercero: Third
ahora: Now
antes de : Before that
después de: After that
más tarde: Later (in the day)
más adelante: Later(in the future)
entonces: Then, so
finalmente: Finally
al final: At the end
al principio: At the begining

Días de la semana / Days of the week

Lunes: Monday
Martes: Tuesday
Miércoles: Wednesday
Jueves: Thursday
Viernes: Friday
Sábado: Saturday
Domingo: Sunday

Día de semana: Weekday
Fin de semana: Weekend
mitad de semana: Middle of the week.
EXPRESSION OF THE DAY: "Donde manda capitán, no manda marinero".

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