conseguía dar

Question

Can someone translate this for me? It must be idiomatic, because a literal translation makes no sense. The full sentence is "Me han pedido que so lo pasara si conseguía dar con usted." From the context, I think it means "They asked me to pass it (a message) to you if I see you(?) if I meet you(?)"

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

They asked me to pass it on to you if I managed to come across you/bump into you.

dar con alguien is a way of saying you unexpectedly found yourself with someone/bumped into them/came across them, maybe like encontrarse.

Conseguir is often used as an auxilliary verb to mean to manage or to acheive.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Dandi,

Thanks for the response. There were actually 2 questions in one (unintended) - "conseguía" and "dar con...". Thought they would have to go together in this phrase.

De nada! - 003487d6, Dec 19, 2009