Norwegian has a great number of verbs that use reflexive pronouns *reflexive verbs* (ex. vaske seg, legge seg).
Reflexive means that you are doing something to «yourself». The Subject and the Object in the sentence is the same person.
For example: Petter barberer seg hver morgen.
Peter is shaving (himself) every morning.
General rules for such verbs:
1. Verbs that are always reflexive (see list)
2. Some verbs that are not reflexive might be used as reflexive if we want to express, that something is a *personal* experience of some sorts.
For example: å kose is not reflexive while å kose seg is
Other examples:
- å like /like seg – to enjoy myself
- å klippe/klippe seg- to get my hair cut
- å skille /skille seg – to get (myself) divorced
- å sette /sette seg – to sit (myself) down
- å kjøpe/å kjøpe seg- to buy (for oneself)
3. Some verbs that are not reflexive might also become reflexive in fixed expressions. For example, the verb å spise is not reflexive, but in the expression å spise seg mett (to get full (after a meal)), becomes reflexive.
Other examples:
- å drikke seg full (to get drunk),
- å gi seg over til (to surrender)
- å rote seg bort (to get lost),
- å angre seg over (to have regrets over something)
4. Verbs that are never reflexive:
Verbs that refer to things you cannot do to yourself. For example,: å bety– to mean.
Jeg betyr meg , it doen’t make sense to say: to mean myself
Other examples of such verbs:
bli, begynne, huske, besøke, bety, forsvinne, gjelde, ligge, sitte.
Norsk-Engelsk:
Polsk versjon:
