Reflexive pronouns and reflexive verbs

I dag skal vi introdusere refleksive pronomener og refleksive verb. Today we are going to introduce reflexive pronouns and reflexive verbs. Enjoy! What are reflexive pronouns? Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and the object in the sentence are the same person(s). They indicate that the subject is performing the action upon itself, while a pronoun in the object form indicates that the action is performed upon someone else than the subject.

Notice the difference in these sentences: Han vasker seg, or he is washing his hands. Han vasker ham. He’s washing him (f.ex. his son) In the first sentence, the subject «han» is the same as the reflexive object «seg» indicating that the action of «washing» is made by the subject upon itself. He’s washing himself and as the picture illustrates, his hands. In the second sentence on the other hand, the subject «han» is «washing» a different

object this time, another person: «ham», for example his son. In this case, we use the Object form of the personal pronoun. Reflexive pronouns are identical in form to

object pronouns, except for ham, henne and dem where the pronoun seg is used: Jeg  vasker meg. Du  vasker deg. Han  vasker seg. Hun  vasker seg. Det/Den  vasker seg. Vi  vasker oss. Dere  vasker dere. De  vasker

seg.  Reflexive verbs: Some Norwegian verbs require a reflexive pronoun even if it may not seem logic in your language.

These verbs are called reflexive verbs: Take a look at the example below: Tone setter seg i stolen. Tone sits (herself) down in the chair. Tone setter seg i stolen. This can be litterally translated in to «Tone sits herself down in the chair». In your language this verb may not be combined with a reflexive pronoun, but in Norwegian you must include the reflexive pronoun if you want the verb to have the correct meaning.

Some common reflexive verbs are: å sette seg  to sit down å ha med seg  to bring å glede seg til  to look forward to å skynde seg  to hurry å kose seg  to have a nice time å tørke seg  to dry oneself å kle på seg  to dress å barbere seg  to shave å komme seg ut  to get out quickly (in emergency) You can find a list for the most common reflexive verbs in the Download section. The list is of course just an example, but If you want to practice your converastion skills, learning the verbs on the list will be a good start.