Hi Patrice,
I thought so much about breakfast that I'm now craving bacon and eggs!
?Desyaunar?, as an intransitive verb, is ?to have breakfast, to breakfast?.
Examples: Desayunamos cada dia. = We eat breakfast every day.
Ella no desayuna en los fines de semana. = She does not eat
breakfast on weekends.
Desayuné rápido = I ate breakfast quickly. I breakfasted quickly.
Desayuné pan con mantequilla = I had bread and butter for
breakfast. (I breakfasted on bread and butter, and NOT I fed myself
bread and butter.).
Now, when a verb is reflexive the action remains with the subject.
?Desayunarse? is the reflexive form. So, if I want to say I ate two
eggs for breakfast (Basically, 'I fed myself breakfast of two eggs',
or ?two eggs were eaten by me for breakfast?), I?d say ?Yo me desayuné
dos huevos? = I ate two eggs for breakfast.
Desayauno, meaning ?I break my fast.?
Me desayuno, meaning ?I break my fast myself (by eating)?
I found some good explanatory examples on this site:
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/reflexive1.htm
?The purpose of the reflexive object pronouns is to show that the
action of the verb remains with the subject.
Juan se lava la cara.
Juan washes his face. (reflexive)
Juan lava su carro. (non-reflexive)
Juan washes his car.
A verb is reflexive when the subject and the object are the same.
I wash myself.
subject: I
verb: wash
object: myself
Since the subject and object are the same, the verb is reflexive.
I wash the car.
subject: I
verb: wash
object: car
Since the subject and object are different, the verb is not reflexive.
Note that nearly all verbs can be made reflexive. All it means when a
verb is reflexive is that the action remains with the subject.
wash the dog (non-reflexive)
wash your face (reflexive)
raise the book (non-reflexive)
raise your arm (reflexive)
put the baby to bed (non-reflexive)
go to bed (reflexive)
wake up your son (non-reflexive)
wake up yourself (reflexive)
Note: When referring to body parts, use the definite article, thus "la
cara" not "su cara." ?
This page explains a bit further.
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/reflexive2.htm
As to why ?cenar? and ?almorzar? are not reflexive? the best I can
come up with is ?desayunarse? is classified as a reflexive verb,
probably due to it?s real meaning! As in English, ?desayunar? means
to undo a fast, stop a fast, as ?break fast?. We are eating after a
night of fasting, breaking our fast. ?Ayunar? means ?to fast?.
The use may be colloquial too. My Mexican friends use
?desayunar/desayunarse? for breakfast, but ?comer? for lunch, ?La
comida? is the noon meal, and ?almorzar? is the evening meal. This is
similar to regional US terms as ?dinner? and ?supper?.
Additional Information:
Author's opinion: To be honest, I can't think of any reason to
memorize a whole list of reflexive verbs. In most cases, if you know
the infinitive of the verb for an action, and you want to use it as a
reflexive verb, go ahead and do it.
Some examples of reflexive verbs are shown below:
acostarse to go to bed
bañarse to bathe
cepillarse to brush your teeth
desayunarse to have breakfast
despertarse to wake up
irse to go away
levantarse to get up
maquillarse to put on makeup
mirarse to look yourself
peinarse to comb yourself (your hair)
ponerse to put something on
quitarse to take off
sentarse to sit down
http://deutsch98.tripod.com/Four/verb23.htm
A simple practice exercise with ?desayunarse?
http://www.maxcr.com/cgi-bin/conj.pl?verb=*se,view=2,list=,index=13,tense=1,prac=1,label=Reflexive%20Verbs
Here are some exercises with other Spanish reflexive verbs.
http://www.colby.edu/~bknelson/exercises/reflexive.html
Hope this helps you out!
Hasta luego, Crabcakes |
Clarification of Answer by
crabcakes-ga
on
28 Feb 2005 16:21 PST
Close, patrice, but 'almorzar' is not reflexive although it IS irregular.
The correct form would be
Yo almuerzo al mediodia. (Almuerzo is also a noun for 'lunch')
Tu almuerzas
Ella/el almuerza
Ellos almorzan
Nosotros almorzamos
Commonly used would be "Como mi almuerzo al mediodia", "Como mi cena a
la seis" "No tomo la ceno los lunes"
Some regions would use "Tomo la cena a las seis", "Tomo el almuerzo al mediodia"
'Cenar' is not reflexive either. (Go figure!)
Yo no ceno los lunes. (As in all Mondays). If you were not going to
eat dinner this coming Monday, you would say "No voy a cenar el
lunes."
I did a poor job of explaining in my answer, but I feel 'desayunar'
was deemed reflexive due to the nature of the word. Since you are
breaking your own fast, perhaps that is how is became reflexive.
Keep it up!
Sinceramente, Crabcakes
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