Bonjour 👋🏿

It's time you took a good look in the mirror at yourself! 👁️ 👁️

⏳ It's also time to do the pronominal verbs in the present tense. 🎁  They're the verbs that use the reflexive pronouns (myself me, yourself te, himself/herself/oneself se, ourselves nous, yourselves vous, themselves se).

The pronominal verbs are as common as 🐝  bees 🐝  in a 🐝  beehive in French. They buzz around every French conversation - there's no getting away from them. They're used far more than in English. In English we may say  ⏰  'I wake up' but the French have to say who exactly is being woken up - if it's yourself then you have to use the reflexive pronoun me. Je me réveille. 

If you're waking up someone else then this is a 'normal' verb not a pronominal verb:

• Je réveille mon frère. I wake up my brother. ⏰

So in fancy pants grammatical terms (fear not if you don't understand you'll get the idea after plenty of examples in the lessons), with pronominal verbs the subject and the direct object are the same (person/thing/animal etc).

With 'normal' verbs the subject and direct object are different - as with the example above - the difference between par exemple 'He washes himself' Il se lave 🚿 and 'washing someone/something else'. Il lave sa voiture 🚘 🚿 Il la lave tous les dimanches! 

The great news about the pronominal verbs is that vast majority of them are regular -ER verbs- you just pop the reflexive pronouns before them. So they're not too difficult to get your head around. 

The pronominal verbs also include what are known as the reciprocal verbs. The things we do to one another/each other. From loving one another s'aimer, seeing each other 👁️ 👁️  se voir, fighting each other 🤼  se battre and the list goes on. Because there always has to be more than one person involved reciprocal verbs just use the plural conjugations. E.g. on s'aime, nous nous aimons, vous vous aimez and ils/elles s'aiment. 💕

You'll go over the 🤪  quirky irregular verbs and learn plenty of new verbs to increase your French vocabulary  - say more and understand more - et voilà! 

‘Cecile’s approach to teaching makes learning fun and interesting. I feel I have made great strides in achieving my goal of feeling capable of visiting France and interacting with people without making a fool of myself. Cecile’s way of making words and phrases stick in the mind works very well.’ Ali Azfar

The trickiest pronominal verbs, I think, are the idiomatic verbs because they sound ridiculous if you try to translate them into English. Like:

• S'en aller To go away (Lit. To go oneself from) 🏃🏾‍♂️
• S'amuser To have fun (Lit. To amuse oneself) 🤣 😂 🤣
• S'appeler To be called (Lit. To call oneself) 📛
• Se régaler To enjoy/feast (Lit. To regale/indulge/treat oneself) 🍲

So they can sound a bit bonkers if you try to translate them word for word. But these idiomatic pronominal verbs embellish your French - they make it 🌸 prettier and if you can learn a few of these expressions you will impress the locals! 😮

What you get:

• Over 4 hours of video in total (you can revisit them as often as you need to) 📹
• Written summaries (you don't even have to lift a pen if you don't want to) 📄
• Practice questions with the answers (to see what you've remembered and where the gaps are) ✍🏾
• French songs (with lyrics and translations - powerful way to learn) 🎶
• Games (to make learning fun - it's not just kids who benefit from playing!) 🎲

You don't need to be too flexible with reflexive pronouns - you just pop them before the verb and 'Robert est votre oncle!' No backbends required. 

If you're ready to expand your French to better speak and better understand French, stop and listen to the their 🐝  buzzing and you can join in - 🐝  buzz away too - before 🐝  buzzing off! 🐝  

If you don't try to shoo them away (they'll always come back anyway), if you observe them, listen to them - you won't get stung by them. You'll see their beauty and encourage them to do their waggle dance and join in yourself. Shake that booty! 🎵 🍑  🎵

So if you'd like to speak more beautiful 🌼  French - come and join me and we'll dance with one another all the way through - I can help you learn the steps. 👣

CécileBB :-)