The reflectives neuter are mostly neuter verbs, to which the reflective form is given, such as s'abstenir, to abstain, s'échapper, to run away, s'élancer, to rush upon, s'enfuir, to run away, s'évanouir, to faint, se jouer, to play, se plaire, to take pleasure in, to like, se repentir, to repent, &c. &c. Vous plaisez-vous à Paris? do you like Paris? The reflective passive are only used in speaking of inanimate things, which, in themselves, are incapable of action. Ex. Cela se voit tous les jours; Ce bruit se répand; Ces fruits se mangent en hiver; that is seen every day. that report is spread. these fruits are eaten in winter. Se voit, se répand, se mangent, are used here instead of the passive forms, est vu, est répandu, sont mangés. See p. 99. Some are also called réfléchis réciproques, reciprocal reflectives, because they express what two persons or two things do to each other. Ex. Paul et Robert s'aiment ; Paul and Robert love each other. fire and water destroy each other. without exception, are conju be sup French reflective verbs, gated with the auxiliary verb étre ; hence it may posed how much French people are shocked to hear English people say, Je m'ai acheté un cheval, Il s'a fait mal, Elle s'avait moquée de moi, &c. whereas they must say, Je me suis acheté un cheval. I bought myself a horse; Il s'est fait mal. Reflective verbs being difficult to conjugate, a model is here given of the four regular conjugations, with the simple and compound tenses given at full,-affirmatively, negatively, and interrogatively, and the pupil cannot learn them too soon, nor too well, as there are few things at once more important and more difficult, in French, than to conjugate a reflective verb, through all the forms of which it is susceptible. * Observe, that the participle past must agree with the subject. † Repentis, levés, are in the plural, in the supposition that this is addressed to more than one person. |