Daniel se encontró una sorpresa.
What role does the word "se" play in this sentence.
Daniel se encontró una sorpresa?
Thank you for your answer.
(This is out of a childrens' book I got at the library).
14 Answers
Strange that no-one has explained this adequately yet.
Is it really "Daniel found himself a surprise" ??
If it is in my opinion it makes no sense.
Not being a grammar wizard -- this doesn't seem difficult.
Daniel se encontró una sorpresa. (Daniel found himself a surprise.)
Daniel encontó una sorpresa. (Daniel found a surprise.)
So I wound venture to guess that "se encontró" is simply reflexive.
Strange that no-one has explained this adequately yet.
Could that be because the reflexive explanations are the wrong approach? I haven't a clue as to the correct answer, but the lack of adequate explanation for the se being used reflexively tends to make me believe that it has some other pronominal meaning such as suddenly, completely, or unintentionally, or some other contexts that have been explored on this forum for pronominal use.
I believe the answer will come from a native translating the sentence as they read it, providing the nuance given by the pronoun se. The context of suddenly, or abruptly seems appropriate here, but I don't know enough about the pronominal use of se in that context, beyond having read that it exists.
I would suggest that you read Lazarus1907's reply about pronominal usage and pay particular attention to the last two paragraphs of his reply.
[Lazarus1907 reply to previous thread on pronominal (not reflexive) use][1]
The way I understood it in my Spanish class, the infinitive of the verb in that sentence would be "encontrarse", the reflexive form of "encontrar", because the doer (Daniel) of the action (find) is doing it to himself. If the regular "encontrar" is used, then the action will have an indirect object other than Daniel. "Daniel se encontró una sorpresa" is how the sentence would be constructed because of the reflexive verb and it would be translated into English as "Daniel found a surprise for himself". We cannot force the Spanish sentence structure to follow the English structure, but then even if you will translate that closer to it's Spanish structure as "Daniel found himself a surprise", an English speaker would still understand it the same way.
The problem is that many textbooks that purport to teach Spanish grammar wish to make things "simple" for students (and are willing to do so at the expense of accuracy). The fundamental definition of "reflexive" (in any language) is that the subject coincides with the object of some verb. In Spanish, the :reflexive pronoun" is used for such cases. However, the same pronoun is used in many constructions that are, by no stretch of the imagination, "reflexive". Some (perhaps, many) teachers of Spanish would prefer to have a simple rule (with many exceptions) rather than a complicated rule that is more accurate. They are not uncomfortable about saying "It's a reflexive verb but it's not really used reflexively." (if they're honest). More probably, they'll say "It's a reflexive verb but this is an exception" (or "but only in Spanish, not in English").
What they should say is "It bears some superficial resemblance to reflexive constructions (because of the presence of "se") but is, in fact, quite different in meaning in many cases.
You can read an article by Lazarus if you poke around in the "reference section" or (if your Spanish is up to it) you can read Uses of 'se'. The choice is yours; a "simple" but wrong (or, at best, misleading) explanation that will be easy to remember or a complex explanation (encompassing various "special" situations) that will be harder to remember but more accurate.
The "se" means that the verb is reflexive, meaning it refers back to the subject. Encontrarse is used when a person finds something or someone (in English, this would be sort of like "Daniel found himself a surprise", the "se" roughly equating "himself").
I may have missed it in the spate of answers above but have we considered the possibility that Daniel himself is the surprise --- for someone else?
I can't say I really like this solution but - any opinions. Give us more context please Maria-russel.
More generally, I am not the least bit surprized by the use of "encontrarse" here. It sounds perfectly natural. Was I badly brought up Hispanohablante-wise?
I am trying to read a children's book I got at the library. It is a level 2 Green Light Reader. The name of the book is: El misterioso huevo de Daniel = Daniel's Mystery Egg. Following is the 1st page:
Daniel se encontró una sorpresa. Era un pequeño huevo blanco. Lo Puso en una cajita.
These children's books are, in my opinion, very hard to read. Whoever heard of putting reflexive verbs in a "Green Light Reader?" I mean there are direct objects and reflexive verbs on the first page which I haven't even gotten past. Sometimes, I have problems reading the hard cover books and they are for preschool. Who writes these things, anyway?
Another guess - Encontrarse = to meet ..... so -
Daniel "met" a surprise (possibly idiomatic)
Am I close? Please tell me if this is way off because I need to know.
Daniel se encontró una sorpresa?
Just a guess but .
Maybe it is not a question of being reflexive but rather it is a "passive" structure.
Daniel found that he was surprised.
I don't understand the principle of reflexive verbs, when I was a child, if I had said
something like "I found myself a surprise," my mother would always have corrected me and said "you didn't find yourself," and she would have been right!
It would be you found a surprise.
It seems evident to me the direct object is "surprise" and that "yourself" is the implied indirect object as in "I found a surprise for myself."
and not, "I found myself a surprise."
I think the "se" is reflexive and refers back to the subject. Daniel "found himself" a suprise.
This is one of those things that we just have to accept as a difference between the languages. There are verbs in Spanish that make no sense or that are grammatically incorrect if they are translated word for word. I found that if I didn't try to think literally in translating, that it became much easier because then the Spanish sounds quite natural to my ear as I learn the new words. 
Great question, Maria.
I looked up "encontrarse" and I found these examples:
1) se encuentra en París -> she's in Paris (She found herself in Paris?)
2) fui a visitarle y me encontré con que ya no vivía allí -> I went to visit him only to discover that he no longer lived there.
3) encontrarse a sí mismo = to find oneself
So, maybe yes, "Daniel se encontró una sorpresa" is that he found himself a surprise/he encountered a surprise/he was surprised. But why can't we just say "Daniel encontró una sorpresa" for he found a surprise or "Estaba sorprendido" for he was surprised.
I wish a native (advanced) speaker would chime in on this one.
