En la oración "Ya no temian que se les perdiera" , ¿a qué refiere la 'se'? ¿Qué función tiene la 'se', gramaticalmente?

Question

The statement "Ya no temían que se les perdiera" comes from a synopsis of a Gabriel García Márquez story, where the parents are now not afraid that they might lose their sick child to death. From a grammatical standpoint, I don't understand the 'se'. And why use 'perdiera' instead of 'perdieran'?

Answer 1

Let me add the pronominal se used with unintentional action.

Unplanned occurances

Actually I think Spanish people just throw "se" in there to cover their "b*tt". With all the possible reasons for including a reflexive pronoun one of them is bound to apply. Kind of a shotgun approach for hitting the target.

Did anyone explain that "perdiera" was used because of "temían que" being a verb of emotion in past tense. (+ subordinate clause+subject change). The subject is "she" not "they", so singular is used. (she was lost to them; not that they lost her). That's where the passive part enters.

Oops, I see that moutaingirl explained it. Notice that my instinct was to say she, not he. We all know that males never get lost. Women just mislead them.

Answer 2

After I found that reference to the impersonal se (in my first response), I also found a reference to the passive se

Answer 3

There is a good write-up on the "impersonal se" here in the reference section.

Answer 4

Welcome to the forum! You've asked a great question.

"Ya no temían que se les perdiera" ...what that means in a more literal translation is "they no longer feared that he would be lost to them". The "se" is the passive voice and the reason the verb is singular is that the subject is "he" (referring to the child).

I hope this has answered your question.