A reflexive verb is one that comes packaged with a reflexive pronoun — me, je, zich, ons — pointing the action back at the subject. Some Dutch verbs require this pronoun, even though their English translations have none: zich vergissen means simply "to be mistaken," zich herinneren means "to remember," zich haasten means "to hurry." For an English speaker the natural instinct is to drop the pronoun, because the English sentence had none — and that single instinct is the source of nearly every reflexive-verb error. The reliable fix is to stop translating and start memorising: file these verbs in your head with their zich, like a fixed prefix that can never come off.
For the pronoun set itself (me, je, zich, ons, je) and the special form zich, see Reflexive Pronouns and Zich. This page is about the verbs that demand one.
Two kinds of reflexive verb
Dutch reflexive verbs split into two groups, and the distinction matters because it tells you whether the pronoun is negotiable.
- Obligatorily reflexive — the verb only exists with a reflexive pronoun. There is no non-reflexive vergissen or herinneren standing on its own. Drop the pronoun and the sentence is simply broken.
- Optionally reflexive — the verb can take an outside object or point back at the subject. Wassen can wash a child (ik was de baby) or wash yourself (ik was me). The reflexive pronoun is just one of its possible objects.
Obligatorily reflexive verbs: the list to memorise
These are the troublemakers. Each one is reflexive in Dutch but plain in English, so there is no logical shortcut — you have to learn the zich as part of the dictionary entry. Here are the highest-frequency ones, the verbs you cannot avoid in everyday Dutch:
| Dutch (with zich) | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| zich herinneren | to remember | often + object: ik herinner me dat |
| zich vergissen | to be mistaken, to be wrong |
|
| zich voelen | to feel (a certain way) |
|
| zich haasten | to hurry | common as a command: haast je! |
| zich gedragen | to behave |
|
| zich afvragen | to wonder |
|
| zich bevinden | to be located, to be (somewhere) | formal; of objects and people |
| zich verbazen | to be amazed |
|
| zich vervelen | to be bored | no object: ik verveel me |
| zich realiseren | to realise |
|
Ik vergis me, het was dinsdag, niet woensdag.
I'm mistaken, it was Tuesday, not Wednesday. 'zich vergissen' — English 'be mistaken' has no reflexive, but Dutch demands 'me'.
Herinner je je dat nog?
Do you still remember that? Note the doubled 'je je' — subject 'je' + reflexive 'je' — which looks odd but is correct.
Hij gedraagt zich slecht op school.
He behaves badly at school. 'zich gedragen' is obligatorily reflexive; there's no '*hij gedraagt slecht'.
Ik vraag me af waarom ze niet gebeld heeft.
I wonder why she hasn't called. 'zich afvragen' = to wonder — English 'wonder' takes no reflexive at all.
Optionally reflexive verbs: the object can be anyone
With this group, the reflexive pronoun is just the object — and it could equally be someone else. Wassen means "to wash"; what gets washed is up to you. Point it at the subject and you get the reflexive reading; point it at someone else and you don't.
Ik was me en kleed me aan.
I wash and get dressed. Reflexive 'me' = I wash myself, I dress myself.
Ik was de baby en kleed haar aan.
I wash the baby and dress her. Same verbs, but the object is someone else — no reflexive.
Other verbs in this group: zich aankleden / iemand aankleden (dress), zich scheren (shave — though you rarely shave anyone else), zich verstoppen / iets verstoppen (hide), zich verdedigen / iemand verdedigen (defend). The pattern is always: same verb, reflexive when the object loops back to the subject.
De kinderen verstoppen zich achter de bank.
The children are hiding behind the sofa. 'zich verstoppen' (reflexive) = hide oneself.
Hij verstopt de cadeaus op zolder.
He's hiding the presents in the attic. Same verb 'verstoppen', but with an outside object — no reflexive.
Where the reflexive pronoun goes
The reflexive pronoun is an unstressed object, so it follows the rules for pronoun placement: it sits early in the middle field, right after the finite verb (or after the subject in a subclause), and well before any other objects or adverbs that aren't pronouns.
Ik herinner me die zomer nog goed.
I still remember that summer well. 'me' comes right after the verb, before the object 'die zomer'.
Vandaag voel ik me een stuk beter.
Today I feel a lot better. With a fronted time phrase, verb-subject inverts and 'me' tucks in right after 'ik'.
Ze zei dat ze zich vergiste.
She said she was mistaken. In the subclause, 'zich' sits just after the subject 'ze', and the verb goes to the end.
In an imperative the pronoun comes straight after the verb — and with these verbs you cannot leave it out:
Haast je, we zijn al laat!
Hurry up, we're already late! 'zich haasten' keeps its pronoun even as a command.
Gedraag je een beetje.
Behave yourself a bit. Imperative of 'zich gedragen' — 'je' is structurally required.
Why Dutch marks reflexivity and English doesn't
English mostly leaves reflexivity implicit: "he shaves," "she dresses," "I remember." The self-direction is understood from context, so no pronoun is needed. Dutch is more explicit: if the verb's frame says it's reflexive, the pronoun is grammatically obligatory, not optional decoration. This is why the mismatch always runs the same way — an English speaker, copying their pronoun-less original, drops the Dutch pronoun and produces something ungrammatical.
The deeper point, shared with Reflexive Pronouns and Zich: whether a verb is reflexive is a fact about the verb, not something you can read off the English meaning. Herinneren simply is reflexive, the way opbellen simply has a separable prefix. Learn the whole frame and the pronoun never goes missing.
Common Mistakes
Every error here is the same root cause: the English sentence had no reflexive, so the learner dropped the Dutch one.
❌ Ik herinner dat niet.
Incorrect — 'zich herinneren' is reflexive, so you need 'me'. English 'I don't remember that' has no pronoun, which is exactly the trap.
✅ Ik herinner me dat niet.
I don't remember that.
❌ Hij vergist vaak.
Incorrect — 'vergissen' only exists reflexively. Without 'zich' it's not a Dutch verb.
✅ Hij vergist zich vaak.
He's often mistaken.
❌ Voel je beter snel!
Word-order and meaning off — and missing nothing here, but the idiom for 'get well soon' keeps the reflexive in place differently. The point: 'zich voelen' always needs its pronoun.
✅ Ik hoop dat je je snel beter voelt.
I hope you feel better soon. 'zich voelen' — 'je je', subject + reflexive.
❌ Ik vraag af of het waar is.
Incorrect — 'zich afvragen' (to wonder) needs the reflexive 'me': without it you only have the literal 'ask off', which isn't the verb.
✅ Ik vraag me af of het waar is.
I wonder whether it's true.
❌ De kinderen vervelen op een regenachtige dag.
Incorrect — 'zich vervelen' (be bored) is obligatorily reflexive. Without 'zich' the verb would mean 'to bore someone'.
✅ De kinderen vervelen zich op een regenachtige dag.
The children get bored on a rainy day.
Key Takeaways
- Obligatorily reflexive verbs exist only with a pronoun and have no English reflexive: memorise zich herinneren, zich vergissen, zich voelen, zich haasten, zich gedragen, zich afvragen, zich bevinden, zich verbazen, zich vervelen, zich realiseren as fixed zich-frames.
- Optionally reflexive verbs take any object; the reflexive reading appears only when the object loops back to the subject (ik was me vs ik was de baby).
- The reflexive pronoun is an unstressed object: it sits early in the clause and stays put even in commands (Haast je!, Gedraag je!).
- The doubled je je (Herinner je je dat?) is correct: subject plus reflexive.
- Whether a verb is reflexive is a verb-frame fact, not something you can predict from English — which is why dropping the pronoun is the universal beginner error. Learn the verb together with its zich.
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Reflexive Pronouns and ZichA2 — When the subject acts on itself, Dutch uses a reflexive pronoun: me, je, ons reuse the object forms, but the third person and formal u have their own word, zich (Hij wast zich) — a form English simply does not have. Adding -zelf (mezelf, zichzelf) marks emphasis or genuine self-directed action, and many Dutch verbs are obligatorily reflexive where English uses none (zich vergissen = to be mistaken).
- Zich vs Zichzelf: Plain vs Emphatic ReflexiveB2 — Dutch has two third-person reflexive forms — zich and zichzelf — and English's single '-self' hides the difference. Zich is the plain reflexive that goes with inherently reflexive verbs, where 'self' isn't contrastive (zich wassen, zich vergissen). Zichzelf is emphatic: it's used when the self is a genuine object set against others, or stressed (zichzelf kennen, van zichzelf houden). This page gives the rule, head-to-head pairs, and the errors English speakers make most.
- Reciprocal Verbs with ElkaarB1 — When two or more people act on one another, Dutch uses the reciprocal pronoun elkaar ('each other'): Ze kennen elkaar, We helpen elkaar. Elkaar fuses with prepositions (met elkaar, naar elkaar, door elkaar = 'mixed up'), and crucially it disambiguates 'each other' from 'themselves' — Ze slaan zich (themselves) vs Ze slaan elkaar (each other), a distinction English makes with separate words.
- Reflexive vs Non-Reflexive Verb Pairs (zich wassen / wassen)B2 — Many Dutch verbs exist both with and without a reflexive pronoun, and the pronoun flips the meaning: wassen (wash something) vs zich wassen (wash oneself), ergeren (annoy someone) vs zich ergeren (be annoyed). How the reflexive turns a transitive verb inward onto its subject.
- Placing Pronouns in the Middle FieldB1 — Unstressed object pronouns in Dutch cliticise leftward, hugging the finite verb or subject and overriding the indirect-before-direct order that full nouns follow.