Remember, if you’re taking a class, your teacher will call “spine” verbs “preterite” verbs. Reflexive Spine verbs are conjugated just like normal spine verbs and as usual, when there’s just one verb, the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, or nos) goes in front.
Let’s take a look at a few examples:
| I bathed yesterday | Me bañé ayer |
She got tired last night | Se cansó anoche |
They brushed their hair | Se cepillaron el pelo |
We dried our hands | Nos secamos las manos |
They shaved earlier | Se afeitaron más temprano |
She worried about him | Se preocupó por él |
Before we have an official practice, there are a few irregulars in the reflexive spine group that you need to know about. They have stem changes. Let’s take a look at them here. As with other irregulars, the best way to remember them is to hear them enough that you tune your ear to the right way of saying them. As with other irregular spine verbs, they are just irregular on the bottom row of conjugations.
Are you ready? We’ll start with the verb despedirse (to say goodbye)
| (Yo) | me despedí | (Nosotros) | nos despedimos |
(Tú) | te despediste | (Vosotros-Spain) | os despedisteis |
(El, Ella, Ud.) | se despidió | (Ellos, Ellas, Uds) | se despidieron |
The second reflexive verb is sentirse (to feel well or ill)
| (Yo) | me sentí | (Nosotros) | nos sentimos |
(Tú) | te sentiste | (Vosotros) | os sentisteis |
(El, Ella, Ud.) | se sintió | (Ellos, Ellas, Uds) | se sintieron |
The third reflexive verb of this type is divertirse (to have fun)
| (Yo) | me divertí | (Nosotros) | nos divertimos |
(Tú) | te divertiste | (Vosotros) | os divertisteis |
(El, Ella, Ud.) | se divirtió | (Ellos, Ellas, Uds) | se divertieron |
The fourth irregular reflexive verb of this type is caerse (to fall down)
| (Yo) | me caí | (Nosotros) | nos caímos |
(Tú) | te caíste | (Vosotros) | os caísteis |
(El, Ella, Ud.) | se cayó | (Ellos, Ellas, Uds) | se cayeron |
The fifth irregular reflexive verb is vestirse (to get dressed)
| (Yo) | me vestí | (Nosotros) | nos vestimos |
(Tú) | te vestiste | (Vosotros) | os vestisteis |
(El, Ella, Ud.) | se vistió | (Ellos, Ellas, Uds) | se vistieron |
There is actually one more irregular reflexive verb. It is the verb “darse cuenta” or “to realize”. You already learned earlier how to conjugate “dar” in the spine, or preterite tense earlier, but we’ll take another quick look at it to help refresh your memory.
| (Yo) | me dí cuenta | (Nosotros) | nos dimos cuenta |
(Tú) | te diste cuenta | (Vosotros) | os disteis cuenta |
(El, Ella, Ud.) | se dio cuenta | (Ellos, Ellas, Uds) | se dieron cuenta |
