Reflexive and reciprocal verbs

Many verbs are reflexive in Italian, that is, they describe an action that you do to yourself, such as to wash your hands [lavarsi le mani] or to wake yourself up [svegliarsi].  Italian verbs tend to use the reflexive form more often than English verbs, so many verbs that are reflexive in Italian are not reflexive in English, such as lamentarsi [to complain] and arrabbiarsi [to get angry].  Reflexive verbs in the present tense are conjugated exactly like all verbs in -are,-ere, –ire, with the addition of a reflexive pronoun.

Present tense

Notice that ci means both there (as you have just learned) and us/to us/ourselves.

Passato prossimo
In the passato prossimo, all reflexive verbs take essere as the auxiliary. As for all verbs that take essere in the passato prossimo, a singular female subject will say mi sono persa a Venezia,  a masculine plural subject will say ci siamo persi a Venezia, etc.

Reciprocal verbs describe an action that two or more people do to or with each other, and they take the same form as reflexive verbs. Reciprocal verbs are always conjugated in the plural forms of the verb, because they always involve two or more people. Consider the conjugation of verb abbracciarsi [to hug each other] in the present tense and in the passato prossimo:

A list of the most common reflexive and reciprocal verbs:

Notice that many reflexive and reciprocal verbs also have non-reflexive and non-reciprocal forms, which you already know and have used before.  Compare: