Welcome to Unit 3! This unit is all about your daily routine in Paris — from waking up in the morning to winding down at night. In this first lesson, you'll learn how to describe your morning habits using a key feature of French: reflexive verbs. These verbs express actions you do to yourself, like getting up, showering, and getting dressed. They might look a little different at first, but you'll see they follow a very logical pattern. Let's start the day with Camille and Lucas!
Learning tips
- Reflexive verbs always appear with a reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nous, vous, se) that matches the subject — think of it as 'I get myself up', 'you get yourself up', etc.
- The reflexive pronoun contracts before a vowel: je m'habille (not je me habille). Watch for this with s'habiller and se préparer.
- Use d'abord … puis … to sequence your morning: D'abord je me douche, puis je m'habille. This is a very natural, everyday structure in French.
- Tôt (early) and tard (late) are adverbs — they follow the verb directly: Je me lève tôt. Je prends le petit déjeuner tard.
- Prendre is irregular — memorise je prends, tu prends, il prend, nous prenons, vous prenez, ils prennent. It appears in dozens of useful phrases like prendre le bus, prendre un café.
Warm-up & Active Recall
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| vingt | twenty |
| trente | thirty |
| quarante | forty |
| cinquante | fifty |
| soixante | sixty |
| soixante-dix | seventy |
| quatre-vingts | eighty |
| quatre-vingt-dix | ninety |
| cent | one hundred |
| et | and |
Dialog
Camille and Lucas catch up about their morning routines — first in the hallway, then over breakfast in the kitchen. Notice how they chain reflexive verbs together with d'abord and puis to describe what they do step by step.
Vocabulary
Active words
| Word | IPA | Translation | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| se lever | /sə lə.ve/ | to get up | Reflexive verb — always used with a reflexive pronoun: je me lève, tu te lèves |
| se doucher | /sə du.ʃe/ | to shower, to have a shower | Reflexive verb — je me douche, tu te douches |
| s'habiller | /sa.bi.je/ | to get dressed | Reflexive verb — note the contraction: je m'habille (not je me habille) |
| prendre | /pʁɑ̃dʁ/ | to take, to have (food/drink) | Irregular verb — je prends, nous prenons; also used in prendre le bus, prendre un café |
| le petit déjeuner | /lə pə.ti de.ʒœ.ne/ | breakfast | Literally 'small lunch'; le is the definite article — prendre le petit déjeuner = to have breakfast |
| le matin | /lə ma.tɛ̃/ | the morning | Le matin as a time expression means 'in the morning' — Je me lève tôt le matin |
| tôt | /to/ | early | Adverb — follows the verb directly: Je me lève tôt |
| tard | /taʁ/ | late | Adverb — opposite of tôt: Je prends le petit déjeuner tard |
| puis | /pɥi/ | then, next | Sequencing adverb — links steps in a routine: d'abord … puis … |
| d'abord | /da.bɔʁ/ | first, first of all | Adverb of sequence — d'abord is the most natural word to start a list of steps |
Passive words
| Word | IPA | Translation | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| le réveil | /lə ʁe.vɛj/ | ||
| la douche | /la duʃ/ | ||
| les vêtements | /le vɛt.mɑ̃/ | ||
| le café | /lə ka.fe/ | ||
| le croissant | /lə kʁwa.sɑ̃/ | ||
| se préparer | /sə pʁe.pa.ʁe/ |
Useful chunks
| Word | Translation |
|---|---|
| je me lève | I get up (myself) |
| prendre le petit déjeuner | to have breakfast |
| le matin tôt | early in the morning |
Grammar: Reflexive verbs in present tense
| Pronom | se lever | se doucher | s'habiller |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | me lève | me douche | m'habille |
| tu | te lèves | te douches | t'habilles |
| il/elle | se lève | se douche | s'habille |
| nous | nous levons | nous douchons | nous habillons |
| vous | vous levez | vous douchez | vous habillez |
| ils/elles | se lèvent | se douchent | s'habillent |
Reflexive verbs describe actions that 'reflect back' on the subject — things you do to or for yourself. In French, they are formed with a reflexive pronoun placed between the subject and the verb. The pronouns are: me (myself), te (yourself), se (himself/herself), nous (ourselves), vous (yourselves/yourself formal), se (themselves). For se lever (to get up): je me lève, tu te lèves, il/elle se lève, nous nous levons, vous vous levez, ils/elles se lèvent. Notice that the stem has a spelling change: lever → lève in the singular and ils/elles forms (this is a common pattern for -e_er verbs, where the accent grave appears when the ending is silent). For se doucher and s'habiller, the stem stays the same throughout: je me douche, tu te douches; je m'habille, tu t'habilles. The reflexive pronoun must always match the subject — you cannot say *je te lève. In negative sentences, the pronoun stays attached to the verb: Je ne me lève pas tôt. In questions, the order stays the same in everyday speech: Tu te lèves tôt ?
Exercises
Fill in the Blanks
Complete each sentence with the correct conjugated form of the verb in parentheses.
- Je à sept heures le matin. (se lever)(se lever, je — use the accent grave form)
- D'abord, elle puis elle s'habille. (se doucher)(se doucher, elle — reflexive, 3rd person singular)
- Nous le petit déjeuner à huit heures. (prendre)(prendre, nous — irregular verb)
- Tu tôt ou tard le matin ? (se lever)(se lever, tu — use the accent grave form)
- Il vite après la douche. (s'habiller)(s'habiller, il — reflexive, 3rd person singular)
Grammar Application
Conjugate each reflexive verb with the subject given.
- Conjuguez : je / se doucher → (je + se doucher — reflexive pronoun: me)
- Conjuguez : tu / s'habiller → (tu + s'habiller — reflexive pronoun contracts: t')
- Conjuguez : elle / se lever → (elle + se lever — use the accent grave form)
- Conjuguez : nous / se lever → (nous + se lever — reflexive pronoun: nous)
- Conjuguez : ils / se doucher → (ils + se doucher — reflexive pronoun: se)
Translate into French
Translate each sentence into French using reflexive verbs and vocabulary from this lesson.
- I get up early in the morning.
- First, I shower.
- Then she gets dressed.
- He has breakfast late.
- Do you get up early or late?
Build Your Own Sentence
Describe your own morning routine in French. Use at least two reflexive verbs and one sequencing word (d'abord, puis, après). You can use the example sentences as inspiration.
Takeaway
Reflexive verbs are your key to describing daily routines in French — once you know the pronoun pattern (me, te, se, nous, vous, se), you can use dozens of verbs to talk about your day.