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On the girar page of SpanishDict they have two examples of it's use: "to turn oneself". But one is reflexive and the other is not. Are both examples correct, and if so, when is a reflexive pronoun not needed?

girar

INTRANSITIVE VERB

  1. (to turn one's body) a. to turn around

¡Todavía no gires! No he terminado de envolver tu regalo. (Don't turn around yet! I haven't finished wrapping your present.)

girarse

REFLEXIVE VERB

  1. (to turn one's body) a. to turn around

¡Gírate y no mires atrás! (Turn around and don't look back!)

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  • I would not use that site to learn Spanish I would buy a decent bilingual dictionary and put it on my computer. Like Harrap's
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 3, 2022 at 18:44

2 Answers 2

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Both "girar" and the pronominal "girarse" are correct to mean "turn around". However, with "girar" alone it might be the case that the person is in a vehicle.

  • ¡Todavía no gires! No he terminado de envolver tu regalo. (Don't turn around yet. I haven't finished wrapping up your gift yet.)
  • ¡Todavía no gires! Debes seguir derecho dos cuadras más. (Don't turn yet. You should go two more blocks straight ahead.)

I find the pronominal form to be usual in the imperative but rather weird in other tensed forms, where I'd tend to use "girar" or "darse vuelta":

  • Giró / Se dio vuelta para que le viera la cara. (He turned around so I could see his face.)
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  • Thank you for that. The use of girar alone in cases in a vehicle is interesting. I guess I still don't understand though why the first example wouldn't be reflexive (assuming they're not in a car). Similarly, why in the last example I'm confused why it wouldn't be "Se giró para que la viera la cara"?
    – ENIAC-6
    Commented Dec 6, 2022 at 21:15
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    I think you have found perhaps the only verb in Spanish that can be used both intransitively and reflexively with the same meaning. There are other verbs like caer/caerse, tropezar/tropezarse, etc. where the pronominal is quasi- but not a true reflexive. As I said at the beginning, intransitive "girar" and pronominal "girarse" can both be used to mean "turn (your own body) around". I have found a similar question here: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/15716/….
    – Gustavson
    Commented Dec 7, 2022 at 14:22
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    As you can read in that other thread, just like me other speakers also find "girarse" unusual in most tenses and will tend to use "girar" or "darse vuelta".
    – Gustavson
    Commented Dec 7, 2022 at 14:23
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¡Todavía no te gires! No he terminado de envolver tu regalo.

Las siguientes son las acepciones que puedes encontrar en el verbo girar, algunas de ellas pueden ser utilizadas igualmente con el pronominal "girarse" y pueden servirte algunos ejemplos que he añadido.

Girar

Del lat. gyrāre.

    1. tr. Mover una figura o un objeto alrededor de un punto o de un eje. Gíralo hacia la ventana por favor. Gírame con los ojos vendados mirando al mar.
    1. tr. Enviar dinero por giro postal, telegráfico, etc. ¡Mamá Gírame el dinero de este mes!
    1. tr. Com. Expedir libranzas, talones, letras de cambio u otras órdenes de pago. Girar una letra. ¡Por favor gírame un cheque si no tienes dinero en efectivo!, Me giro un talón a noventa días.
    1. intr. Dicho de una cosa: Dar vueltas sobre un eje o en torno a un punto. ¡Gíralo!, Gíralo más de prisa! ¡Como me gires tanto me voy a marear!.
    1. intr. Dicho de una conversación, de un negocio o de algo similar: Desarrollarse en torno a un tema dado. "El tema gira sobre los desiertos que existen en el mundo".
    1. intr. Desviarse o cambiar con respecto a la dirección inicial. La calle gira a la derecha. Gírate para que te vea la cara (Darse la vuelta). El se giro bruscamente.
    1. intr. Com. Hacer las operaciones mercantiles de una empresa. "Desde que llego Roberto la empresa ha dado un giro de 180 grados".
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