despertarme vs. desperte

Question

My Spanish book has a sentence that says: I woke up: Acabo de despertarme

Why do they attach the me to the infinitive?

Why not just say:

Me desperté

What are the grammar rules to this sentence: Acabo de despertarme

Answer 1

As others have already said, It's part of the verb + infinitive structure. The pertinent detail, though, is this:If the infinitive is reflexive, you can either put the object pronoun in front of the entire phrase or attach it to the end of the infinitive. Your choice.

So both of these are correct:

• Me acabo de despertar
• Acabo de despertarme

I hear the latter more frequently in speech.

Good explanation. - --Mariana--, Oct 30, 2009

Answer 2

Me desperté, I woke up.

Acabo de despertarme, I just woke up.

Acabar de hacer algo means to have just done something.

Acabar de plus the infinitive of a verb.

Answer 3

Hi Walter. Welcome to the forum.

The rule is acabar de + infinitive. Here despertarse is the infinitive. You just change the "se" to "me" when you're talking about yourself.

when "you're" talking about yoruself ;) - Stobber, Oct 30, 2009

lol. Good catch, Stobber. :-) - --Mariana--, Oct 30, 2009