Mis primos se llevan bien con mis amigos.

with

Breakdown of Mis primos se llevan bien con mis amigos.

• mi: my
• el amigo: the friend
• el primo: the cousin

Questions & Answers about Mis primos se llevan bien con mis amigos.

What does se llevan bien literally mean, and how is it different from just llevan?

Llevar by itself usually means to carry, to take, to wear, etc.

When you add se and bien:

• llevarse bien (con alguien) = to get along well (with someone)

So se llevan bien literally comes from something like “they carry themselves well”, but idiomatically it means “they get along well”.

If you said only llevan bien, it sounds incomplete or incorrect here, because without se it no longer has the meaning of “getting along (with someone).”

Why do we need se in se llevan bien? Who does se refer to?

Se is a reflexive/reciprocal pronoun that refers back to the subject mis primos.

• Mis primos se llevan bien
  = My cousins get along well (with each other).

Here, se indicates a reciprocal action: they get along with each other.

So:

• Subject: mis primos → they
• Pronoun: se → themselves/each other
• Verb: llevan (3rd person plural) → they get along

Is llevarse bien always “to get along (with someone)”? Can it mean anything else?