Daily Routines and Customs — Reflexive Verbs and Everyday Life

Experiences are not only extraordinary trips; they include the texture of everyday life. Describing daily routines and cultural customs is a core part of the Experiences theme, and it depends on reflexive verbs. This lesson teaches the vocabulary of the daily routine, the mechanics of reflexive pronouns, and how to compare customs across cultures.

A reflexive verb is one whose action falls back on the subject: you wash yourself, you wake yourself up. In the infinitive they end in -se: levantarse (to get up), despertarse (to wake up), ducharse (to shower), vestirse (to get dressed), acostarse (to go to bed), cepillarse los dientes (to brush one's teeth), peinarse (to comb one's hair), and afeitarse (to shave). The reflexive pronouns are me, te, se, nos, os, se, and they normally go before t