but also:
Er rasiert mich.
He shaves me.
Er rasiert dich.
He shaves you.
Er rasiert ihn.
He shaves him (i.e. another person).The basic pattern here is subject + verb + accusative form of the personal pronoun
(when the action is performed on someone else, see 42.3a) or subject + verb +
accusative form of the reflexive pronoun (when the action is performed on oneself
or the verb can only be used reflexively).
(b) Sie stellt sich das neue Büro vor.
She imagines the new office.but also:
Sie stellt mir das neue Büro vor.
She shows the new office to me.
Sie stellt dir das neue Büro vor.
She shows the new office to you.
Sie stellt ihr das neue Büro vor.
She shows the new office to her.The basic pattern here is subject + verb + dative form of the personal pronoun (when
someone else is the beneficiary of the action) or subject + verb + dative form of the
reflexive pronoun (when the subject is also the beneficiary or when the verb can only
be used reflexively). Sich/jmdm. (dat.) etwas (acc.) vor*stellen literally means ‘to place
sth. in front of oneself/sb.’.
(c) Sie hat sich einen Computer gekauft.
She (has) bought (herself) a computer.but also (see 19.2):Sie hat mir einen Computer gekauft.
She (has) bought me a computer.Sie hat dir einen Computer gekauft.
She (has) bought you a computer.Sie hat ihnen einen Computer gekauft.
She (has) bought them a computer.The basic pattern here is subject + verb + accusative object + pronoun in the dative
which explicitly shows the recipient or beneficiary of the action (see 42.3b).37.4 The dative reflexive pronoun is used to express washing and cleaning oneself when a
part of the body is mentioned:
Ich muss mir die Hände waschen.
I must wash my hands.
See also 23.2e (p. 39) and 110.11 (p. 390).
37
VERBS