Learning Spanish - Verb Types

There are a few different verb types in Spanish: transitive, intransitive, reflexive, reciprocal. Learning these grammar constructs can be very helpful in understanding how to properly use them, as they don’t have direct analogs in English.

Transitive

Transitive verbs are verbs that need a direct object.

The test is to determine the direct object is to ask <verb> who/what.

I eat a cookie

Como una galleta

Sometimes the a is needed if the direct object is a person or place.

You meet Joey.

Conoces a Joey

Intransitive

Intransitive verbs are verbs that don’t need a direct object. Along with verb conjugation, which incorporates the subject, it’s common for intransitive verbs to form one word sentences.

I sleep

Duermo

Other times, there may be an indirect object, which is specified through pronouns.

Chocolate is pleasing to me

El chocolate me gusta

In this example, the indirect object is me. This sentence translates to chocolate is pleasing to me.

Pronominal

Pronominal verbs are reflexive and reciprocal verbs. These require object pronouns to specify what the indirect object is.

Pronoun	Reflexive
yo	me
tu	te
el/ella	se
nosotros	nos

Reflexive

Reflexive verbs are verbs where the action is performed on oneself. These are very common in Spanish and almost entirely absent from English.

I have to wash the fruit: tengo que lavar la fruta

I have to wash myself: tengo que lavarme

A test is if this English translation involves myself, yourself, or himself.

The infinitive verb form of a reflexive verb appends -se. i.e. lavar becomes lavarse.

Reflexive verbs can also be transitive/normal verbs. This is as simple as changing the object pronoun to a second person.

Me llamo Alberto

Mi amigos me llaman Alberto

The first sentence is reflexive because it’s translated as “I call myself Alberto”. The second sentence is transitive because it’s translated as “My friends call me Alberto”. We can see that there’s a significant difference in English; however, in Spanish, it’s just verb conjugation and pronoun agreement, otherwise there’s nothing special about reflexive verbs.

Reciprocal

Reciprocal verbs are verbs where the action is performed between two subjects, to each other. It’s the same idea as reflexive verbs but there are two subjects.

We hug each other

Nos abrazamos

A rough test is if the English translation involves each other. This can be extraneous and implied, such as in we hug (each other).

To be honest, this distinction seems to be a linguistic technicality. In practice, the reflexive and reciprocal forms seem mutually exclusive and intuitively distinct. e.g. for the verb abrazar, it’s assumed to be reciprocal instead of reflexive, as there are inherently two subjects and no one is hugging themselves. This might explain why reflexive verbs are conflated with being both pronominal and reciprocal verbs.