1

How does this translate to English? And, what verb form is 'mirándome'?

According to Wiktionary.com:

Compound of the adverbial present participle of mirar, mirando and the pronoun me.

Whaaaaat! Hahaa.

I'm thinking that this is something that has no direct translation to English, which is why I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around this one.

BTW, the context is the song Eres para mí:

La sombra que pasa

La luz que me abraza

Tus ojos mirándome

La calle que canta su canto de diario

El mundo moviéndose

Improve this question
3
  • Your eyes look at me?
    – B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven
    Jul 19, 2016 at 23:15
  • 4
    That's just your eyes looking at me.
    – Schwale
    Jul 19, 2016 at 23:24
  • @B.ClayShannon it would be "Your eyes looking at me". Notice the word is the verb "mirar" plus ending "-ando" (-ing)
    – DGaleano
    Jul 22, 2016 at 13:48

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

You have yourself your own answer.

It translates as:

Your eyes looking at me.

That form is called gerundio (present participle); the gerundio of mirar is mirando. It is possible (and necessary) to put two words together to form one. So it is wrong to say mirando me, instead you have to say mirándome. The tilde (accent mark) is there because the accent is in the second syllable, so when you put the two words together the accent is still there, but now you have an esdrújula word. But maybe that's a point for another question.

Unlike English, you don't use a preposition with the verb mirando when it's reflexive.

That applies to all the conjugation of that form:

Mirándome

Mirándote

Mirándose

Mirándonos, etc

You can say for example

Mira la luna. Look at the moon, or even he/she looks at the moon.

In that case the verb is not reflexive. But you could say

Mirándome a mí.

In that case you put emphasis that she/he is/was looking at you, and to no one else.

Improve this answer
5
  • I feel so silly now! I'm very familiar with the gerund form of verbs. I didn't recognize it as a gerund form because I was thrown off by it also being reflexive (along with the accent mark). Thanks for another great explanation!
    – Rock Anthony Johnson
    Jul 19, 2016 at 23:40
  • 1
    It's better to be silly sometimes in order to learn a language. If you are not afraid of that, you will succeed, so don't worry.
    – Alonso Urbano
    Jul 19, 2016 at 23:47
  • @RockAnthonyJohnson Seen as a reduced relative clause: your eyes looking at me (= which are looking — tus ojos que están mirándome), but that's hardly used. We often use gerunds in Spanish with this intention, same as in English.
    – Schwale
    Jul 20, 2016 at 0:12
  • 2
    Just a little thing: this is not a reflexive construction. It is true, though, that you don't use a preposition before the accusative form of the pronoun (me).
    – Gorpik
    Jul 20, 2016 at 7:45
  • Thanks for the editing, I didn't notice I wrote aguda instead of esdrújula. I wanted to explain that the first word was aguda but then it becomes esdrújula, I just didn't write the whole sentence.
    – Alonso Urbano
    Jul 20, 2016 at 15:53

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.