16 votes

How does "Te vas a cansar" mean "You're going to get tired"?

Te vas a cansar or, alternatively, Vas a cansarte, illustrates two grammatical concepts: Pronominal verbs, like cansarse, which means "to get tired, to become tired"; contrast this with plain cansar ...
  • 39.2k
10 votes

How come I can't find some reflexive verbs like decirse, odiarse and mentirse in the dictionary?

In the "official" Diccionario de la Lengua Española (DLE), pronominal versions of verbs (i.e., meanings of the verb that require the use of me, te, se, etc.), are marked with the ...
  • 11.6k
9 votes

Why is the "se" needed in "la niña se baja del coche"?

There are a number of questions in this site already dealing with pronominal verbs, which I would advise the OP to read. From the descriptive point of view, some Spanish verbs just work like that, and ...
  • 39.2k
9 votes

¿Adherir o adherirse?

En la entrada de adherir del DLE tienes un indicio: U. m. c. prnl. (Usado más como pronominal). Esto quiere decir que si bien el uso pronominal es más frecuente, ambos usos son correctos. En el ...
  • 4,423
8 votes

Why is the "se" needed in "la niña se baja del coche"?

This is because the verb bajar can be used in a pronominal form when referring to geting off a vehicle or an animal: intr. Quitarse de encima de un animal o de una cosa. Bajar DEL caballo. U. t. c. ...
  • 33.8k
8 votes

Why, in "mis padres se llaman __", do you need "se"?

Yo me llamo Diego. Mis padres (ellos) se llaman __ y __ Se is just the third person pronoun, like me is the first person pronoun. I don't know what is your mother tongue, but since you seem fluent ...
  • 47.9k
8 votes
Accepted

Why is "yo me quedo en casa" instead of "yo quedo en casa"?

"Quedar" is an intransitive verb, which can also be use as pronominal (quedar(se)). This pronominal use means roughly that their subjects are acting upon themselves (I do this action upon myself). ...
  • 47.9k
8 votes
Accepted

Dejarte irte, dejarte ir, dejar irte

Según entiendo (1) y (2) son correctas, aunque (1) suena tanto a frase redundante que casi ningún hablante la articularía naturalmente. (1) Dejarte irte fue un error. (2) Dejarte ir fue un error. ...
  • 39.2k
8 votes
Accepted

If "gustarse" does not exist in the Spanish language, why has "me gusto" for "I like myself" made it into the language?

You will not find gustarse in the DLE because verbs in the DLE are almost always cited using their basic infinitive form. When the verb admits a pronominal usage, if this usage has a different meaning,...
  • 39.2k
7 votes

¿Por qué se dice "¿qué se te ofrece?" y no "¿qué te ofrezco?"?

Entiendo que en la frase qué se te ofrece hay una connotación impersonal que es justamente la que se quiere transmitir. Es como decir: ¿Qué se te puede ofrecer a través de mí? Si decimos ¿Qué te ...
7 votes

Why "se lo" instead of "le lo"? / ¿Por qué debo escoger "se lo" en vez de "le lo"?

You were already answered the question when to use se lo but I understand your question is more why using se lo instead of the expected le lo? Like a lot of people, I wrongly believed this ...
  • 1,210
7 votes
Accepted

What does "Créeme que si vas a Colombia no te vas a querer ir" mean?

It means "you won't want to leave". This is an example of a radical change in meaning when a verb (in this case ir) becomes pronominal. A pronominal verb is always accompanied by an object pronoun. ...
  • 39.2k
6 votes

¿Cuál sería el término correcto para referirse a uno/a mismo/a utilizando el verbo "decir"?

En su análisis de las distintas funciones del pronombre “se” (que puede hacerse extensivo a los pronombres átonos “me”, “te”, “nos”, “os”), el DPD dice: b) Pronombre personal de tercera persona con ...
  • 28.3k
6 votes
Accepted

Significado de "correrse a" en Perú

correr(se). V. intr. prnl. ... Ni, Pe, Bo, Ch. Eludir alguien un problema, una dificultad o una responsabilidad. pop. Fuente: Diccionario de americanismos, RAE El DAMER también ...
  • 19.2k
6 votes
Accepted

¿Por qué se dice "si me saliera" y no "si me saldría"?

Una oración condicional ("si saliera pronto, comeríamos antes") se divide en dos subordinadas, la prótasis, que establece una hipótesis o condición ("si saliera pronto"), y la ...
  • 1,933
5 votes

Why "se lo" instead of "le lo"? / ¿Por qué debo escoger "se lo" en vez de "le lo"?

The reason you see le transform in front of lo/la/los/las has to do with the history of Spanish. In Old Spanish, the combination le(s) + lo/a/os/as was written gelo/a/os/as (with the g pronounced as ...
5 votes

Why, in "mis padres se llaman __", do you need "se"?

It's an important question and a good question. Here's one use of llamar: At 8:00, I call my cat to come in and eat. A las 8:00, yo llamo a mi gato a venir a comer. Here's another: Sometimes I ...
  • 10.7k
5 votes

How does "Te vas a cansar" mean "You're going to get tired"?

It's because the verb cansarse means "to get/become tired." The te is a part of cansarse and not a part of irse. Context tells you which verb the te corresponds to. Equivalently, you could say Vas a ...
  • 503
4 votes

What is the difference between "No lo digas" and "No se lo digas"?

The pronoun "se" has many usages and "reflexive ones" is only one of those. I can count up to 7 usages of "se". ... and the one you are looking for is "variant of le". Basically, the structure "le lo"...
  • 4,814
4 votes
Accepted

How do you say "spread" in Spanish?

You can use a dictionary in order to translate spread. I just used wordreference and got a couple of decent proposals, like extenderse and difundirse. The different connotations between all these ...
  • 47.9k
4 votes

How do you say "spread" in Spanish?

Spanish is a idiom that have a lot of synonyms so you can use se (propagó/difundió/diseminó/extendió/esparció) all these will be well with you phrase. El veneno se (propagó/difundió/diseminó/...
4 votes

Pronoun placement in "La Compuerta Número 12"

It's called pronombre enclítico. In some cases, it's very standard and usual. In the case of your quote, in which the verb is in indicative, it's not usual, it only appears in (old) literature. See ...
  • 7,651
4 votes

¿Cuál sería el término correcto para referirse a uno/a mismo/a utilizando el verbo "decir"?

La forma más correcta es la segunda. "Dite a ti misma·. El complemento indirecto puedes especificarlo o no, pero el pronombre siempre debe aparecer. Ocurre lo mismo con "Me dijo a mí". Puedes decir ...
  • 4,814
4 votes

Use of "Me está"

In this case the pronoun does not belong to the verb estar but rather to the verb entrar. Consider the following rephrasing of the sentence (it sounds really weird, but it is still correct): El ...
  • 1,756
4 votes

¿"Le escapa la respiración" vs "Se le escapa la respiración"?

Escapar is one of those verbs that can be used with or without the reflexive pronoun (let's call them "optionally pronominal verbs" for short), with only a subtle change in meaning. Your first ...
  • 39.2k
4 votes

¿Por qué el término "reflexivo" cedió paso a "pronominal"?

Algo como «el jarrón se cayó» no es reflexivo. Lo que lo caracteriza es el hecho de que se construye con pronombre. La terminología actual es más precisa. Piensa es «la planta se secó por culpa del ...
4 votes
Accepted

Why the extra 'se' in 'se espera se que supere'?

Yes, it's wrong. It's probably meant to be Se espera que se supere 1M.
  • 4,814
4 votes

estoy acostumbrado / me estoy acostumbrado

I think you are (understandably) mixing up two related structures. Estar acostumbrado (a) is a regular estar + adjective predicate that can take an object (introduced by the preposition a). It means "...
  • 39.2k
4 votes
Accepted

"se me da bien" -- why "se"?

It's the pronomial verb form (often called reflexive, which is apparently a subtype of pronomial) darse. Literally, you could translate "(esto) se me da bien (a mi)" as It *gives itself* to me well.
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