Reflexive Pronouns: me, te, se, nos, se

A reflexive pronoun points the verb's action back at its own subject: the subject and the object are the same person. In English we use the -self words — myself, yourself, himself — but only when we really need them ("I cut myself"). Portuguese uses a small set of reflexive pronouns that show up far more often than English -self, including in places where English uses no pronoun at all ("I get up," "I remember"). Learning this set is the gateway to a huge family of everyday Brazilian verbs.

The reflexive set

Here is the full Brazilian inventory. Notice how few distinct forms there are — and how one of them does an enormous amount of work.

The forms are me, te, se, nos — and se for everything in the third person plus você(s) and a gente.

'se' is the workhorse

If one fact about Brazilian reflexives is worth tattooing on your memory, it is this: se covers almost everything in the third person and beyond. It is the reflexive for você, for ele/ela, for vocês, for eles/elas, and — crucially for Brazilian Portuguese — for a gente, the colloquial "we."

The a gente case is the one that surprises learners. Even though a gente means "we," it is grammatically third-person singular (it literally means "the people"), so it pairs with the singular verb and with se, not with nos.

Compare the two "we" options directly: Nós nos divertimos and A gente se diverte both mean "we have fun." The first uses nos with nós; the second uses se with a gente. In casual speech, the second is far more common.

The three jobs of a reflexive pronoun

A reflexive pronoun does not always mean literal "self." There are three distinct uses, and recognizing which one is in play helps you translate correctly.

1. True reflexive: the subject acts on itself

This is the textbook case — the subject genuinely does something to its own body or self. Here Portuguese and English line up most closely.

2. Reciprocal: "each other"

With a plural subject, the reflexive can mean the people act on one another. English uses "each other" or "one another"; Portuguese just uses the plural reflexive.

Context tells you whether se beijaram means "they kissed each other" (reciprocal) or, theoretically, "they each kissed themselves" (almost never the intended reading). In practice, reciprocal is the natural interpretation. If you need to be explicit, add um ao outro (each other): Eles se ajudaram um ao outro.

3. Pronominal: 'se' is just part of the verb

This is the use English speakers find strangest, because there is no "self" meaning at all. Some verbs simply come with a reflexive pronoun as part of their lexical makeup — the pronoun carries no separate meaning. These are called pronominal verbs. Classic examples: lembrar-se (to remember), queixar-se (to complain), arrepender-se (to regret).

There is no "self" here — you do not "remember yourself." The pronoun is just baggage the verb carries. You have to learn these verb-by-verb, the way an English speaker learns that you "stand up" but simply "stand." Note that Brazilian colloquial speech increasingly drops se from several of these (you'll hear Eu lembro alongside Eu me lembro) — that drift gets its own page.

Reflexive vs object pronoun: same shape, different job

The forms me, te, nos look identical whether they are reflexive or plain object pronouns. The difference is whether the pronoun refers back to the subject.

Only se is unambiguous: it is always reflexive. There is no non-reflexive object pronoun se. So whenever you see se attached to a verb, you know the action loops back to the subject (or is reciprocal/pronominal).

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The reflexive set is me, te, se, nos — with se covering você, ele/ela, vocês, eles/elas, and a gente.
• a gente takes the singular verb and se, even though it means "we."
• Reflexive pronouns do three jobs: true reflexive ("myself"), reciprocal ("each other"), and pronominal (part of the verb, no "self" meaning).
• me, te, nos are reflexive only when they refer back to the subject; se is always reflexive.