if spanish is your first language, or if you teach it..?

Question

i have a couple of questions you can help me with...
what is the difference in meaning in following pairs? Like when would you use reflexive verb and when not?
1) despedirse - despedir
2) morirse - morir
3) enfermarse - enfermar
4) olvidarse - olvidar
5)quejarse- quejar
6)sonreirse - sonreir

I am especially confused about 1, 2,4 and 6

Answer 1

the reflexive forms are used in order to show that the action is performed by and falls onto the subject, that is, the subject and the object of the action are one and the same...think about how it works in English...if you say "I looked at myself in the mirror" the subject "I" is the same as the object "me", expressed by the reflexive pronoun "myself"...obviously you can do this only with transitive verbs
In Spanish a reflexive verb can also be used to mean reciprocity as in "We said goodbye"(to each other, which is implied in English and therefore not said explicitly) would be translated as "Nos despedimos"...when not used as a reflexive verb, despedir means to fire (someone from a job): Hoy tuve que despedir un empleado (Today I had to fire an employee)...the same happens with sonreírse..."Nos sonreímos" means I smiled to someone and that person smiled back...sonreír is used if there is no mention of who I was smiling to or if the person smiled back "Yo sonrío cuando estoy feliz" (I smile when I am happy)
Morirse then would be used when the person who dies is the same as the person speaking: "(Yo)No quiero morirme" (I don't want to die) and morir if the person who dies is someone else "Mi padre murió hace 10 años" (My father died 10 years ago)...the same happens with enfermarse
The verb "quejar" by itself is not used in Spanish...the verb is always reflexive, "quejarse"

edit: Martha is right...I overlooked that particular use...thanks!

Answer 2

Queen of…is correct

but I would like to add that you can also use the word "quejar". It doesn´t have to be always quejarse.

in Law to complain

according to the RAE: quejar = Presentar querella.

You can say when somebody asks you

Where are you going?
Me voy a quejar por la falta de agua = I am going to complain about the water shortage.

Answer 3

Queen of answered so well that I won't add or subtract anything from her answer.

Answer 4

No problem you are correct.