Reflexive Pronoun Se with Unplanned Occurrences

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Spanish Reflexive Pronoun Se with Unplanned Occurrences

The reflexive construction is used mainly with reflexive verbs and reciprocal verbs. It can also be used to describe accidental and unplanned occurrences.

Se me olvidó el libro.	I forgot the book.
Se le cayó la pluma.	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.	I forgot the books.
¿Se te perdieron las llaves?	Did you lose the keys?
Sí, se me cayeron ayer.	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.

	Literal meaning
Se le cayó la pluma.	The pen got dropped by him.
Se me olvidaron los libros.	The books got forgotten by me.
¿Se te perdieron las llaves?	Did the keys get lost on you?
Sí, se me quedaron.	Yes, they got left behind on me.

Compare this to the passive voice:

Se cayó la pluma.	The pen fell.
Se perdieron las llaves.	The keys got lost.
Se quedaron los libros.	The books got left behind.

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		Meaning in this construction
acabar	to finish, complete	acabarse	to run out of
caer	to fall	caerse	to drop
ocurrir	to occur, happen	ocurrirse	to dawn on, occur to, get the idea
olvidar	to forget	olvidarse	to forget
perder	to lose	perderse	to lose
quedar	to remain, be left	quedarse	to leave behind
romper	to break	romperse	to break

More about the Spanish reflexive:

More Spanish verb lessons

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