Whenever the subject of the sentence (the doer of the action) and the object of the sentence (the receiver of the action) refer to the same person, we use the reflexive form of the verb. In English this is shown by the use of words such as myself, yourself, himself, herself, etc. Notice that even though English speakers might use the words myself, yourself, himself, etc., sometimes other words are used too (e.g., "get"). The important fact is that the doer and the receiver of the action of the verb is the same person.

	I dress myself every morning at six o'clock. (Reflexive)	I dress my son every morning at six o'clock. (Non-reflexive)
	He gets washed up before eating. (Reflexive)	He washes the dog on Saturdays. (Non-Reflexive)

Spanish speakers use reflexive forms in many instances, some of which are not clearly obvious to speakers of English. You always know when a verb is reflexive in Spanish because the infinitive form is written with the reflexive pronoun "se" (e.g., lavarse, levantarse, llamarse, etc.).

In English we sometimes drop the reflexive pronoun in regular speech, but in Spanish every reflexive usage requires a reflexive pronoun. For example, in English we can say "I shave every morning" or "I shave myself every morning." In Spanish there is only one option, "I shave myself every morning" (Yo me afeito toda mañana). The reflexive pronoun is placed before the conjugated verb. The following example shows how reflexive pronouns are used with the verb "afeitarse".

	Yo me afeito.	I shave myself.
	Tú te afeitas.	You shave yourself.
	Marcos se afeita.	Marcos shaves himself.
	Nosotros nos afeitamos.	We shave ourselves.
	Ellos se afeitan.	They shave themselves.