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I understand 'quedar' can mean many things. I am struggling with the following sentence constructions:

Pablo: ¿Cómo me quedó la comida?

Beatriz: Te quedó muy rica.

Pablo is asking how the food was, and Beatriz says the food was delicious.

In Pablo's question, I suppose the food is the subject which is why quedar is conjugated for the 3rd person singular? But why is Pablo the indirect object, 'me'? My instinct is to think Beatriz should be the indirect object, 'te' since Pablo wants to know how the food was to her, in here opinion. In other words why isn't Pablo asking '¿Cómo te quedó la comida?'

Similarly, when Beatriz responds, I suppose the subject is still the food? But why is Pablo the indirect object, 'te'? Isn't Beatriz saying to her the food was delicious?

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  • While the sentences are perfectly grammatically correct, I definitely feel that there needs to be some context for someone to ask ¿cómo me quedó la comida?, because in most any circumstance I can think, they would already know.
    – user0721090601
    Commented May 29, 2019 at 1:33

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Pablo: ¿Cómo me quedó la comida?

Beatriz: Te quedó muy rica.

"quedar" means "turn out" in the sentences above, and refers to the result of the process of cooking or preparing the food.

The object pronouns are used to express who cooked the food. Therefore, the sentences could be translated as follows:

Pablo: How did my food turn out?

Beatriz: It (your food) turned out delicious.

Object pronouns are frequently used to express possession, and though ownership is not the exact relationship between the food and the person who prepared it, their use is close to expressing that. To be more precise, "me" and "te" express authorship in this case.

Another verb that we use is "salir":

  • ¿Cómo me salió la comida?
  • Te salió muy rica.
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  • Very nice answer. Note, in addition to "turn out" we can also say "come out" e.g. Your new lasagna recipe came out great.
    – aparente001
    Commented May 29, 2019 at 5:19
  • @pestrella - Maybe this will make it clearer for you: let's say you have a new jacket. Your friend compliments you by saying, "La chaqueta te queda bien," which means, "The jacket becomes you." The indirect pronoun is used in a similar way with "quedar."
    – aparente001
    Commented May 29, 2019 at 5:23
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    @aparente001 Yes, "come out" may be even better than "turn out" here, which may suggest an unexpected result. As for "become" or "fit", when speaking about clothes "quedar" is ambiguous, as it may refer to size or appearance. "Me queda bien" may mean "it fits me" o "it looks well on me."
    – Gustavson
    Commented May 29, 2019 at 9:26
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    Thanks so much for this answer, it's really well explained. I didn't know object pronouns sometimes express authorship.
    – pestrella
    Commented May 29, 2019 at 10:16
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"quedó" when is used as a vehicle to ask about or to state the quality or the end result of a task is always accompanied by a pronoun that identifies who performed the task. For example "El trabajo en equipo nos quedó de 10". "nos" denotes that the group project was done by "us".

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  • Thanks so much, it's good to know that this sentence construction with quedar can use other object pronouns also and not just 'me' and 'te'.
    – pestrella
    Commented May 29, 2019 at 10:19

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