The transitive verb has a third other form, with the active and passive form, that is called reflexive form.
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Grammatical explanation
In the active form the subject makes
the action (I wash someone), in the passive form it endures
the action (I’m washed by someone), in the reflexive form the
subject makes and at the same time it endures this action, or better,
the subject makes the action on himself. |
The
reflexive verbs are transitive verbs, preceded by the reflexive pronouns mi,
ti, si, ci, vi, and all they have essere
as auxiliary verb, and they express different kinds of “reflexivity”.
However we
need to distinguish all the different forms of the reflexivity of the verbs:
The proper reflexive form
A verb has
proper reflexive form, when the action it expresses,
reflects over the subject who makes it,
when the subjects makes and endures the action, because subject and object
are the same thing.
Io mi
lavo
- I wash myself
Lavare is a transitive verb and so it can have an object, but in this case the object is io, the same subject of the sentences, so it should be written Io lavo me, but, with the personal pronouns in the weak object form it becomes Io mi lavo.
The apparent reflexive form
A verb has
apparent reflexive form, when the pronominal particles
mi, ti, si, ci, vi, even if they refer to the
subject, they are not the objects of the sentences, but they have function of
dative (= a me, a te, a sé, a noi, a voi), and the action crosses
over a normal object.
Io mi
lavo le mani
- I wash my hands
In the exemple of the proper reflexive form mi is the object of the sentence, but here mi has the meaning of a me. So the sentence should be Io lavo le mani a me, but a me becomes mi in the weak object form of the pronouns. With the English language, where it’s said I wash my hands the mi it’s expressed with the possessive adjective, we can say that the possessive adjective becomes to me, and so it can be correctly translated:
I wash my hands → I wash the hands to me → Io lavo le mani a me → Io mi lavo le mani
The reciprocal reflexive form
A verb has
reciprocal reflexive form when, with the plural pronouns in
the weak form ci, vi, si, it expresses an action, made
reciprocally among two or more persons, or animals, or things.
Mark e
Paul si picchiano
→ Mark and Paul fight
In this sentence the transitivi verb picchiare has a personal pronoun in the weak form, which refers to the subjects as in the proper reflexive form. The exact translation of picchiare is to thrash, to beat up, to give a thrashing to someone, but the Italian sentence shouldn’t be translated so: Mark and Paul thrash themselves, because picchiare in reciprocal reflexive form takes the meaning of to fight, to thrash each other so, the sentence should translate as written above.
The pronominal form
The pronominal form is an active form and has this name because its verb is always accompanied by the pronominal particles mi, ti, ci, vi, si, the same as the reflexive form.
But
it’s not a reflexive form, these
particles have no reflexive value and the verb in the pronominal form has the
same value and function of an intransitive verb.
Mi
pento di ciò che ti ho detto
→ I regret what I told you
In this
sentence the verb is linked with the pronominal particle
mi, and it looks like a verb in proper
reflexive form, but mi has no reflexive
value, because is not object or dative. Io mi pento
doesn’t correspond to io
pento me or
io
pento a me, which don’t exist in the Italian language. The same
thing could be said for io mi
accorgo (I realize) and
io
mi vergogno (I’m ashamed). To translate this kind of verb the
English language has verb that are not reflexive, or has particular
constructions.
The pronominal particles, which link with verbs like pentirsi, accorgersi, vergognarsi, don’t make them reflexive, but they take part of the verb.
In the
Italian language pentire, accorgere,
vergognare don’t exist, only their pronominal forms exist.
There are
three kinds of pronominal verbs:
- The
1st group contains the verbs that
are only in the pronominal form, like:
pentirsi
(to regret)
vergognarsi
(to be ashamed)
accorgersi
(to realize)
arrabbiarsi
(to get angry)
ribellarsi
(to rebel)
impadronirsi
(to take possession)
arrendersi
(to surrender)
- The
2nd group contains some transitive
verbs, indicating events, actions, or moods that strictly refer to their
subject. They can take the pronominal form, and so they become intransitive
verbs. Some of them, even if they become intransitive, can be translated
with the same verbs in English, some of them with different verbs but with
similar meanings, and some of them change their meanings and use different verbs
in English.
addormentare
(to make sleepy) → addormentarsi (to fall asleep)
svegliare
(to wake, to awaken) → svegliarsi (to wake up)
allontanare
(to remove, to send away) → allontanarsi (to go away, to
depart, to leave)
alzare (to
raise, to lift) → alzarsi (to rise, to wake up)
decidere (to decide) → decidersi (to decide)
dimenticare
(to forget) → dimenticarsi (to forget)
offendere
(to offend) → offendersi (to be offended)
fermare
(to stop, to arrest) → fermarsi (to stop, to alt)
- The
3rd group contains some intransitive
verbs, that can be used also as pronominal intransitive verbs, without changing
their meanings or changing it only a little:
approfittare,
approfittarsi (to take advantage, to avail) the pronominal form
would be useless, but both forms of the verb can be used without difference.
sedere,
sedersi, here there is a very little difference, because the form
sedere means to be seated, to sit
in the moment whose we speak, while sedersi means
to seat, to sit down describing the action, the movement of
sitting down. So sedere is a static verb,
sedersi is a movement verb.
