Learn about reflexive pronouns
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Intro |
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| Hi everybody! Anette here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Norwegian questions. |
| The Question |
| The question for this lesson is… Why do I need to use reflexive pronouns with certain verbs? |
| Explanation |
| Let’s start with a more specific question, |
| Why do I need meg in Jeg vasker meg? |
| Meg meaning “myself” is a reflexive pronoun, and it can be difficult to know whether you need it after the verb or not, because you may not need it in English. |
| You use a reflexive pronoun when you perform an action upon yourself, in other words, when the subject is also the object of the action. |
| Let's look at the different forms of reflexive pronouns and typical verbs that need them. |
| Let's start with the example from the question. |
| Jeg vasker meg. This means “I wash myself.” You need meg meaning “myself,” to explain that you are washing your own body. If you write the sentence without meg, it will mean that you just wash “something.” |
| Let's move on to the next example-- |
| Du kler på deg, meaning “You dress yourself.” Here deg is the reflexive pronoun, and kle på needs a reflexive pronoun to show that you're dressing yourself, and not anybody else. |
| Here are some other examples-- |
| Vi forlovet oss. Literally, “We engaged ourselves.” |
| And last, |
| De giftet seg i fjor, literally means, “They married themselves last year.” |
Outro |
| How was it? Pretty interesting right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| Hade. Vi sees senere. |
| Bye. See you later! |
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