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11

You can't use every verb in its so-called “pronominal” form, but as you have probably observed given your examples, a large majority of verbs potentially can. Now, which can be used where stems to some extent from the range of possible interpretations of a pronominal verb. Let's remind ourselves of the potential possibilities across the language as a whole: ...


8

Pour répondre brièvement, aller [lieu] est plus générique, et décrit un déplacement vers un lieu donné. Le verbe est donc transitif, on ne peut pas (hors effet littéraire assez rare) dire simplement « Je vais. » sans préciser où. S'en aller, en revanche, est (très souvent) intransitif dans son utilisation, on ne précise pas forcément de destination. Cela ...


7

All verbs that take "être" as their auxiliary verb must agree in gender and number with the subject. Does this apply also to pronominal verbs? Not always. There are two kinds of pronominal verbs: essentially pronominal verbs and occasionally pronominal verbs. And of course different rules apply to them. Essentially pronominal verbs Essentially ...


4

Pronominal verbs use exclusively être as an auxiliary verb for composed tenses. Therefore, independently of the word order, your first phrasing can't be correct. Your second guess was right. To augment your level of confidence in it, you might want to proceed step by step. To avoid potential confusion due to homophones “est” and “ai”, best is to also ...


4

Your guess is correct if you mean "Would he not have woken up?" Il n'aurait pas se réveillé is indeed incorrect. Il ne se serait pas réveillé is much better and the interrogative form is indeed also correct: Ne se serait-il pas réveillé ?


4

S' is the contracted form of se, which is a reflexive pronoun. French uses reflexive pronouns with a fair number of verbs, more often than in English, where "verb oneself" is pretty rare. For example, French sometimes uses reflexive verbs to render explicit what is implied in English. This can be illustrated with the phrase "I'm going to wash", meaning that ...


3

Generally, if you want to say “I will do something at/to/on me=myself”, you can use “se faire quelque chose”, as in the examples you give (“I wash myself”, “I told myself”, etc.) Hence, yes, “je m'aime” is “I love¹ myself”. Now, an important part of the usage of “se” is pronominal verbs, seemingly called “reflexive” in English. There's much to say on the ...


3

“S'excuser” is a pronominal verb. “Excuser” means “to excuse”, but is most often used as “s'excuser”, meaning “to apologize”. You can see this question for more on pronominal verbs.


2

Pour compléter la réponse de Romain, l'usage de ces locutions peut être différent : Je suis allé [toujours suivi d'un complément]. C'est un constat, un fait avéré : le je fait un compte rendu de ses déplacements, des lieux où il s'est rendu. Je m'en suis allé. Insiste quant à lui sur le moi en sur-ajout du je, cette redondance n'est pas signe de ...


1

If you want mean: "He wouldn't have woken up." "Pronominal verbs" have to be conjugated with the auxiliary verb "être" and not "avoir". Thus, you are correct with : Il ne se serait pas réveillé. Ne se serait-il pas réveillé? For more information about conjugating past participle with pronominal verbs here is French article from the CCDMD ...


1

Se is a pronoun. It is used as direct and indirect object designating the same person or thing as the subject in verbs at the third person. To designate something else, use le, la, les, the speaker use me, nous and the person(s) to whom one speaks, use te, vous. Then there is the class of pronominal verbs for which the use of a reflexive pronoun (se at the ...



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