Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Spanish Verbs that Change Meaning

The whole reflexive verb thing is a bit of a difficult concept to get your arms around, let along your brain and lips (at least for me, but I spent most of my formative schooling years asleep or stoned and only just recently started to learn that the imperfect tense was not a state of mind). That said, let's take a closer look at a group of Spanish verbs that do just that we used with reflexive pronouns.

Acostar: to go to bed - reflexively it's Acostarse: to go to bed
Dormir: to sleep - reflexively Dormirse: to fall asleep
Ir: to go - Irse: to go away, to leave
Levantar: to raise or lift - Levantarse: to get up
Llamar: to call - Llamarse: to be called
Poner: to put or place - Ponerse: to put on
Probar: to try or taste - Probarse: to try on
Quitar: to take away - Quitarse: to take off

Por ejemplo:
- ¿Te vas a acostar? Are you going to go to bed?
- ¿Ya te vas? Are you leaving already?

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