Se me cayó el libro.

Question

Is "me" the direct object of caer? If not, what is the grammatical function of "me" in this sentence? Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

For "Se me cayó el libro." is a topic of a lesson here on Spanishdict.com See: Lesson "3.10 - The Conditional and Excuses"

Answer 2

Nice Q, you got it!

Janeway told me to tell you to leave her alone and to bother Picard instead.

-Charlius-

Answer 3

I suppose I'd better write an answer rather than a comment so the thread will be bumped up.

Time stopped for us.

or

more passively: Time was stopped for us.

Answer 4

Hey Q, I'm just gonna call you Q, is that OK? Haha, one of my favorite characters from Star Trek. You probably don't know who that is, don't worry, he's omnipotent and is pure comic gold.

I am extremely glad you remembered that thread! I'm glad you're learning, de verdad.

We should definitely NOT look at 'me' pronoun in this as a direct object. Remember, the direct object DIRECTLY receives the action from the verb.

Ex: Mi novia me vio con otra chica.

There, the 'me' is a direct object, my girl saw me, unfortunately with another girl.

So yea, this is another example of the impersonal/passive 'se' thing combined with the 'me' pronoun.

Se nos acaba el tiempo.

Same idea, but with 'nos' instead of 'me'. Let me see your translation of that to make sure you got it.

-Charlius-

Sorry, my direct object was a mistype. I meant to refer to your explanation of it being a indirect object. - 0074b507, Sep 14, 2009

I'm quite familiar with Q from Star Trek. Eveyone at work started calling me Q after he appeared. - 0074b507, Sep 14, 2009

Time stopped for us. - 0074b507, Sep 14, 2009

Answer 5

Confusing, yes?

Translate the sentence as:

The book was dropped by me. (passive)

and the [in]direct object explanation makes more sense.

Would you not normally translate that sentence as?:

I dropped my book? or My book fell?

---

Charlius,

Is this another example of the impersonal, passive that you mentioned in another thread?

Answer 6

The 'me' is serving as the indirect object to the falling of the book.

-Charlius-