Knowing how to say what you feel is very important in friendships. You need to be honest with your friends, because friendships are based on trust. You don't need to say a lot, but you do need to make an effort to say what you feel.

Your French friends feel the same things you do — happy, interested, and confident most of the time, sad and frustrated occasionally. But they explain how they feel in a way that's very different from how you express it. They use a sort of double pronoun. So instead of “I feel great!” your friends say something like, “I, me, feel great!”

Reflexive Pronouns — Pronoms réfléchis

You know when you go to a doctor for a checkup, sometimes he or she tests your reflexes. You get a little whack with a rubber hammer right below your kneecap, and your leg automatically kicks!

There are some verbs in French that have a reflex, too. They don't kick, but they do need a pronoun. In English, we call these verbs, “reflexive verbs,” but in French, they're called les verbes pronominaux. You can recognize them because they're always hooked up to a pronoun of some sort. The verb “to feel” is one of these verbs. In French, it's se sentir.

To understand how these verbs work, you begin by learning the reflexive pronouns in French. Here they are: