Usted between verbs

Hola Devin P.

Great observation! The short answer is that "usted" is not part of the verb structure itself—it’s a subject pronoun, and its placement depends on sentence emphasis and style rather than strict grammatical rules.

In Spanish, subject pronouns like "usted" can appear before the full verb phrase ("usted está lavándose las manos") or, less commonly but still valid, between parts of a periphrastic construction like:

This placement—between "estar" and the gerund—is especially common in formal speech or written Spanish, and serves to maintain clarity or to add a more elegant rhythm or emphasis to the sentence.

Both are grammatically correct:

So you're spotting a stylistic nuance of Spanish that becomes more visible with practice. It’s not the reflexive pronoun’s position that’s in question here, but rather the flexibility of where the subject pronoun can sit in relation to a compound verb phrase.

Let us know if you'd like examples with other tenses or pronouns!

Saludos

Silvia