Reflexive verbs: sich, and the mich that is sometimes mir
CEFR B1 · part 1
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
If I could: the Konjunktiv II with würde, hätte and wäreTalking about what is not real: what you would do, would have, would be. With the short…The passive with werden: when what is done matters, not whoBuilding a German passive with its two pieces —werden conjugated and the participle at…The genitive: des, der, and the -s stuck onto the nounSaying whose something is with the fourth case: des Mannes, der Frau, des Kindes, der…Relative clauses: der, die, das again, and the verb at the endHooking a description onto a noun with der, die or das, choosing the form with two…als, wenn or wann: German's three ways of saying «when»Choosing between the three with two questions: is it a QUESTION, direct or indirect?…The infinitive with zu: when it goes in and when it does notAttaching a second verb with zu, and knowing the few cases where it is NOT used: after…The rule, in three lines
About a dozen German verbs always come with a reflexive pronoun: sich freuen, sich interessieren, sich erinnern, sich waschen, sich setzen, sich fühlen. The pronoun is the one you already know, and only the third person has its own form, sich, the same in singular and plural. It is accusative nearly always; dative only when the sentence already has another direct object.
The usual slip. Forgetting the reflexive, because the English verb has none. sich freuen is «to be glad», sich erinnern is «to remember» and sich interessieren is «to be interested», and none of them looks reflexive in English. The list is learnt with the verb, like gender.
Why it catches you out. English barely has reflexives —«I wash», not «I wash myself»— so the whole category is new. The good news is that the pronoun is nearly always the object form you already know: mich, dich, uns, euch, and only the third person has its own word, sich, for both singular and plural.