Je me… – Jot #8 – Forty, c'est Fantastique !

Your prompt for JusJoJan 2019, January 8th is brought to you by Ritu! Click here to find her last post and say hi while you’re there! Ritu’s word for our prompt today is “self.” Use it anywhere in your post or make it the theme of your post. Have fun!

Reflexive verbs, that is the verbs used when the subject of the sentence is also the object of the verb, are so common that I’ll bet most people use them without too much thought. I always have to remind myself how they are different in French and English. For instance, in French, you have to say literally “I wash the hands of myself” instead of “I wash my hands” or “I brush the teeth of myself” instead of “I brush my teeth.”

It’s a bit awkward until you just kind of get the hang of it, and even then there are other sorts of reflexive verbs that get confusing, especially when the subjects doing the actions on themselves are not people. Like saying that the sun sets. In French you have to say that the sun puts itself to bed. Le soleil se couche. It’s more poetic, of course, because, you know, FRENCH. But still a bit confusing. They say that grammar is a necessary evil…le mal necessaire. It’s just hard to remember sometimes!

I found a couple of helpful websites, though. For English speakers learning French, click here. For French speakers learning English, it’s not so hard for you, but you can click here if you want to 🙂

I’m going to go brush the hair and the teeth of myself, wash the face of myself, and put myself to bed now. I prefer to do so before midnight ! Je vais me brosser les dents, me brosser les cheveux, me laver le visage, puis, je me couche. Je préfère de le faire avant minuit! I will just end with this beautiful song by Françoise Hardy. Can you find some verbs in this song that are reflexive in French but not in English?