This paper is concerned with the investigation of the effect of microstructure in the solution of several problems of wave propagation. The propagation of plane waves in a micropolar elastic half‐space and their reflections from a stress free flat surface are studied. It has been found that in a micropolar elastic solid, four waves can exist traveling at four distinct speeds, two of which disappear below a critical frequency dependent upon the character of the medium. Reflection laws and amplitude ratios are presented for three specific problems.