What are RECIPROCAL verbs
Something that we must bear in mind is that the grammar of the Spanish language is very rich, extensive and, on many occasions, complicated. In fact, the conjugation of verbs it is usually an important slab when it comes to learning this language as a second language. And, even having a great knowledge of the language, you can always end up encountering some grammatical characteristic that you did not know before or did not remember.
Taking this into account and delving into the subject of verbs, in a teacher we have encouraged ourselves to remember what are reciprocal verbs with examples, in order to prevent us from forgetting that these existed. Brilliant!
Index
- What are reciprocal verbs?
- Differences between reciprocal and reflexive verbs
- Examples of sentences with reciprocal verbs
What are reciprocal verbs?
A reciprocal verb, broadly speaking, is a verb whose action falls on two or more subjects. These Transitive verbs transmit an action
that is mutually shared by all the subjects of the sentence, be they people, animals or things. Likewise, we must emphasize the fact that, given their collective nature, reciprocal verbs can only appear in their plural form and the action of which we speak is both performed and received in equal parts by all subjects of the prayer. This is, in short, that there are no reciprocal verbs in the singular.Regarding their formation, in addition to appearing in the three persons of the plural, these verbs always they appear pronominally. This means that reciprocal verbs are accompanied by some reflexive pronoun in an auxiliary way when it comes to being trained.
Exclusively, and always appearing in the plural, it is said that the reciprocal verbs are helped by pronouns: us(first person plural) andI know(third person plural or impersonal), to which we would also add the one belonging to the second person plural: you.
However, these classificatory characteristics of reciprocal verbs, especially regarding the use of reflexive pronouns, can lead to significant confusion regarding verb similarity thoughtful. That is why we believe it is convenient to try to differentiate both verbal typologies.
Differences between reciprocal and reflexive verbs.
While reciprocal verbs, as we said, express a joint and mutual value of an action that falls on all subjects at the same time and is also caused by them, reflexive verbs are characterized by the fact that the action falls on oneself. That is, the reflexive form of the verb expresses that the action carried out by the subject (or subjects) falls on the same subject who performs it. For instance:
- Ana and Juan They said hi. (Reciprocal form. Ana greeted Juan and Juan greeted Ana).
- Ana and Juan they sat. (Reflective form. Ana sat [herself] and Juan sat [himself]).
As we can see, both forms of the verb are accompanied by a reflexive auxiliary pronoun, and that is where the greatest complication lies when it comes to differentiating them. However, there are a couple of guidelines that we can follow to know what type of verb we are running into.
Normally, the first choice is to try to understand the context in which the sentence is developed and thus be able to glimpse whether the action is mutual between the subjects or falls on themselves individually, regardless of the the rest. Also, and on the other hand, to reinforce that context you can add the expressions mutually, each, each other, reciprocally, etc., in the own sentence to check that they are reciprocal. For instance:
- My sisters They got angry for no reason. (Reciprocal form, since anger is mutual towards each other and vice versa). [My sisters got angry each for no reason].
- My sisters They got angry with the teacher. (Reflective form, since anger is typical of each of them and does not relapse or affect the other subject or sister).
Image: Slideplayer
Examples of sentences with reciprocal verbs.
We end this lesson with examples of sentences with reciprocal verbs so that you finish understanding what they consist of:
- Not my cousins they take very well between them.
- Those cats they are cleaning each other.
- Juan and I we know each other for a long time.
- After a while of fun the boys they were counted its biggest secrets.
- ¿You have forgiven already?
- Those two they like mutually.
- To be more productive we challenge ourselves weekly to each other.
- Pedro and Alma they kissed that night in front of the sea.
- In the fight they bit the two dogs.
- I do not understand why not you takewell.
- The conference was interesting, the speakers they asked themselves each other and they answered constantly.
- Both of them they looked at each other and they had nothing more to say.
- The thing is better since we would be honest.
- Those two people they loved throughout his life.
- The most important thing of all is that you respect each other.
- To make amends They shook hands.
Image: Slideplayer
If you want to read more articles similar to What are reciprocal verbs - with examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Grammar and Linguistics.
Bibliography
- Del Moral, M. & Rodriguez, J. (s.f.). Reciprocal Verbs Example. Examplede.com
- Encyclopedia of Examples (2019). "Reciprocal Prayers".
- Encyclopedia of Examples (2019). "Reciprocal Pronominal Verbs".
