In English you simply get up. In Spanish you raise yourself: levantarse. The -se on the end of the infinitive marks a reflexive verb — one where the person doing the action is also the one it happens to.

When you conjugate, that -se becomes a small pronoun that matches the subject, and it goes before the verb:

Subject	Pronoun	levantarse
yo	me	me levanto — I get up
tú	te	te levantas
él / ella / usted	se	se levanta
nosotros	nos	nos levantamos
vosotros	os	os levantáis
ellos / ellas / ustedes	se	se levantan

The verb itself is perfectly ordinary: levantar conjugates like hablar. Only the pronoun is new.