French/Lessons/Everyday life

Pronominal verbs are verbs that include pronouns. These pronouns are me, te, se, nous, and vous and are used as either direct objects or indirect objects, depending on the verb that they modify. There are three types of pronominal verbs: reflexive verbs, reciprocal verbs, and naturally pronominal verbs.

Reflexive verbs
Reflexive verbs reflect the action on the subject.
 * Je me lave. - I wash myself.
 * Nous nous lavons. - We wash ourselves.
 * Ils se lavent. - They wash themselves.

Reflexive verbs can also be used as infinitives.
 * Je vais me laver. - I'm going to wash myself.
 * Je ne vais pas me laver. - I'm not going to wash myself.

Reciprocal verbs
With reciprocal verbs, people perform actions to each other.
 * Nous nous aimons. - We like each other.

Naturally pronominal verbs
Some verbs are pronominal without performing a reflexive or reciprocal action.
 * Tu te souviens ? - You remember?

If the subject is performing the action on him or herself, the verbs are reflexive. However, if the subject were to act on someone else, the verb is no longer reflexive; instead the reflexive pronoun becomes a direct object.


 * Je m'habille - I get dressed.
 * Je t'habille - I get you dressed.

In the passé composé, the verbs use être and the participle must agree in gender and number with the subject.


 * Pierre s'est habillé.
 * Alice s'est habillée.
 * Georges et Martin se sont habillés.
 * Lisette et Rose se sont habillées.
 * Marc et Claire se sont habillés.
 * Je m'appelle Lucie, et je me suis levée à six heures.
 * Jean et Paul, vous vous êtes levés assez tard.

The word means need, and thus the expression  translates to to have need of.

The past participle drops the circumflex accent in its other forms: feminine singular due; masculine plural dus; feminine plural dues.

Used as a noun, le devoir means duty or exercise.

Comparison
The verb falloir differs from similar verbs such as avoir besoin de [faire quelque chose] (to need [to do something]) and. Falloir is always used with the impersonal il only in the third person singular, whereas devoir can be used with all subject pronouns in all tenses.

Falloir expresses general necessities:
 * To live, one must eat.
 * To speak French well, one must conjugate verbs correctly.

Devoir expresses more personally what someone must do:
 * I want to pass my French test, so I must study verb conjugations.

Avoir besoin de [faire quelque chose] expresses need:
 * J'ai besoin d'étudier pour mon examen, il est demain. - I need to study for my test, it's tomorrow.

Dormir, meaning to sleep, is an irregular French verb.

The verb, meaning to put to sleep, and its reflexive form are conjugated in the same way as dormir. The noun, meaning dormitory, is derived from dormir.