Unplanned Occurrences and the Spanish Reflexive Pronoun Se

The reflexive construction, used mainly with pronominal verbs - a verb that is accompanied by a reflexive pronoun , can also be used to describe accidental and unplanned occurrences. Se me olvid el libro. Se le cay la pluma. I forgot the book. He dropped the pen.

In this type of construction, the reflexive pronoun se precedes an indirect object pronoun that indicates the subject, and the verb, rather than being conjugated to agree with the subject, agrees with whatever noun follows the verb. Se me olvidaron los libros. Se te perdieron las llaves? S, se me cayeron ayer. I forgot the books. Did you lose the keys? Yes, I dropped them yesterday.

The accidental reflexive construction indicates that the action was unintentional. In addition, because the subject is only referred to by an indirect object pronoun, this construction gives the sense that the subject is not to blame - he or she had nothing to do with the accident. Phrase Se le cay la pluma. Se me olvidaron los libros. Se te perdieron las llaves? S, se me quedaron. Compare this to the passive voice: Se cay la pluma. Se perdieron las llaves. Se quedaron los libros. The pen fell. The keys got lost. The books got left behind. Literal meaning The pen got dropped by him. The books got forgotten by me. Did the keys get lost on you? Yes, they got left behind on me.

The following verbs are commonly used in the accidental reflexive construction. Note that some of them have a somewhat different meaning depending on whether they are used normally or reflexively: Normal meaning acabar caer ocurrir daars to finish, complete to fall to occur, happen to damage acabarse caerse ocurrirse daarse Meaning in this construction to run out of to drop to dawn on, to occur to, get the idea to damage; to break down

olvidar perder quedar romper

to forget to lose to remain, be left to break

olvidarse perderse quedarse romperse

to forget to lose to leave behind to break

The following common verbs express accidental or unplanned occurrences. In each case, the verb is used reflexively and an indirect object (IO) indicates the victim of the accident. acabarse (to run out to run out of of) caerse daarse ocurrirse olvidarse to fall; to drop to damage; to break down to occur to forget; to slip ones mind) to lose (an object) to be left behind (to break) Se me acab la gasolina. I ran out of gas. Se me cayeron los platos. I accidentally dropped the dishes. Se les da la computadora. Se me ocurri una gran idea. Se nos olvid la tarea. They accidentally damaged the computer. A great idea occurred to me. We forgot the homework or the homework slipped our mind.

perderse quedarse romperse

Se le perdieron las llaves He lost his keys. Se me qued la cartera en I accidentally left my wallet casa at home. Se te rompieron los lentes You accidentally broke your glasses.