Reflexives

The Action Reflects Back

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She sees herself in the mirror.

Subject She Action sees Reflexive object herself Same person

Use an object pronoun when the object is a different person.

Same referent: Ana saw Ana → Ana saw herself. Different referent: Ana saw Rosa → Ana saw her. Reference chooses reflexive meaning; sentence job chooses the pronoun form.

Sujeto y objeto se refieren a la misma persona.

Slide 21

Tips

The Action Reflects Back

  1. No empieces por traducir “se.” Nombra primero el referente del sujeto y el referente del objeto. Si son la misma persona o cosa, considera la forma reflexiva; si son diferentes, usa una forma de objeto normal.
  2. Mapa de una misma persona según el puesto: she checks (subject) · her badge (possessive determiner) · I call her (object) · the badge is hers (possessive pronoun) · she checks herself (reflexive).
  3. Same subject and object referent → reflexive object; different referent → ordinary object pronoun.