In English you simply get up. In French you raise yourself: se lever. The se in front of the infinitive marks a pronominal (reflexive) verb — the person doing the action is also the one it happens to.

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

Subject	se lever — to get up
je	je me lève
tu	tu te lèves
il / elle / on	il se lève
nous	nous nous levons
vous	vous vous levez
ils / elles	ils se lèvent

Two details: the e of lever becomes è wherever the ending is silent (je me lève, ils se lèvent); and on, the everyday we, takes the il form: on se lève tôt.