The verbs “llamar” y “llamarse”.
he verb "llamarse," as we saw in the previous exercise, is used to introduce one’s own name or to ask for someone else's name. For example, since my name is Federico, the most common way people ask for my name in Spanish is “¿Cómo te llamas?” (What’s your name?), and the most common way I respond to that question is “Me llamo Federico” (My name is Federico).
On the other hand, the verb “llamar” is not reflexive, and it is used, among other meanings, to attract someone’s attention or to communicate with someone by phone. Should pronouns be used with this verb? Yes, when we replace the direct object of the verb with a pronoun. However, since it’s a transitive verb, not a reflexive one, we will use direct object pronouns instead of reflexive pronouns.
While some direct object and reflexive pronouns are identical, the verb conjugation varies depending on the verb we use. Let’s see a couple of examples.
Ella se llama María. (Her name is María). As we saw in the previous article, using reflexive pronouns with the verb “llamarse” doesn’t imply reflexivity but rather follows a grammatical convention. In this case, “Ella se llama” simply indicates that this is her name.
Nosotros llamamos a María = Nosotros la llamamos (We call María = We call her). Here, when we replace the direct object with a pronoun, we need to use the feminine singular direct object pronoun “la”, because in this case the verb is transitive, not reflexive. This means it takes a direct object, which in this example is María, who is being called by us. The verb conjugation will be “llamamos” (we call), as the grammatical subject is “nosotros” (we).
Yo me llamo Federico. (My name is Federico). As in the first example, I’m introducing my own name. The pronoun “me” here is reflexive, and the verb conjugation matches the first person singular, just like the pronoun, since I am referring to myself.
¿Me llamas más tarde, Manuel? (Will you call me later, Manuel?) Here, I am asking Manuel if we’ll get in touch later, by phone, for instance. The pronoun “me” in this case is not reflexive; it is a direct object pronoun. The trick is that the conjugation doesn’t match the first person singular but rather the second, because I am not referring to myself as the subject but to Manuel, who will perform the action of calling me, making him the grammatical subject.
Conjugations in the Present Indicative and Direct Object Pronouns.
As shown in the table, almost all reflexive pronouns and direct object pronouns are identical, except those that accompany “usted”, “él”, and “ella” in the singular, and “ustedes”, “ellos”, and “ellas” in the plural.
Choose the correct pronoun.
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