Reflexive verb/pronoun

Question

The textbook I am studying has the following rules:

Echte reflexive Verben. Diese Verben stehen immer mit Reflexivpronomen. Man kann es nicht durch ein anderes Objekt ersetzen. Nach anderen Akkusativobjekten kann man mit wen? fragen, nicht nach dem Reflexivpronomen dieser Gruppe.

Ich bedanke mich bei meinem Vater. Beeil(e) dich, bitte!

Reflexiv verwendete Verben. Diese Verben brauchen ein Akkusativobjekt. Das kann ein Reflexivpronomen sein. Nach dem Reflexivpronomen kann man mit wen? fragen

Ich langweile mich. Beruhige dich, bitte!

I do not understand the reference to using wen? to identify the reflexive pronoun, in both examples the pronouns are "mich" and "dich", so what is the difference?

Answer 1

What is called "reflexiv verwendete Verben" here are verbs that are normally transitive with an accusative object:

Anna langweilt den Barkeeper.
Ich beruhige den Hund.

With these verbs, using them reflexively is just a special case of their transitive usage. "Mich/dich/sich" is in that case really just the accusative of "ich/du/er/sie/es [selbst]".

Anna langweilt sich.
Ich beruhige mich.

"Real reflexive verbs", in contrast, only work with reflexive pronouns. There is no meaningful way to replace the reflexive pronoun by an accusative object.

That's all there is to it.

So what do we have to do to discern a "real reflexive verb" from a "fake" one? We have to check whether the reflexive pronoun (sich, mich, dich ...) can be replaced by a different accusative object. If it's "real", it can't.

If we know the verb well enough, for example as a native speaker or with a good understanding of German verbs, we can do that by using the "wen" recipe: We replace the preflexive pronoun by "wen", and then we check if we get a question that makes sense.

Anna langweilt sich. => Anna langweilt wen? => Question makes sense, she could e.g. den Barkeeper langweilen.
Ich beruhige mich. => Ich beruhige wen? => Question makes sense i could e.g. den Hund beruhigen.
Ich beeile mich. => Ich beeile wen? => Question makes no sense, one can only "sich beeilen".

In summary, if you know the word well, you can use the "wen" test to check if the verb is a "echtes reflexives Verb".

What could you do with this hard-earned knowledge? You could tell someone who doesn't know the verb as well as you that it is indeed an "echtes reflexives Verb", and they would know to never use it with an accusative object. It's terrific.

Answer 2

Such questions are helpful only for people who already have a pretty good understanding of the language. If you are a native speaker or if you speak the language already at a very high level, then such questions can help you to distinguish between real reflexive verbs (which btw. do not exist in English) and transitive verbs that are used in a reflexive manner (which is possible in english too: "I wash myself").

For someone who is learning the language, and for whom the concept of verbs that only can be used reflexive (but not transitive), such questions simply are not helpful. They just add another information that needs to be learned.

A similar problem arises when native speakers explain the difference between the grammatical cases like »Wenn du danach mit "wessen?" fragen kannst, ist es Genitiv." This statement is true, but not helpful.

So, I guess, this textbook was made for German native speakers, not for people who learn German as a foreign language. For native speakers, these questions are helpful, but they are not for learners of German as a foreign language.