Es difícil para mí vs Me es difícil
I think the first one is right but I'm not sure about the second. Is it possible/advisable to say the second? I know, for example, that "Me cuesta mucho" is okay so maybe it depends on the verb that follows the pronoun. I really don't know.
Can anybody shed some light on this for me, please?
Muchas gracias.
3 Answers
Why is Me es difícil. right? Logically it makes no sense
Well... that "me" is grammatically called a dative, and we use them in Spanish far more often than in English and in situations where in English wouldn't make sense. When the verb requires two objects, such as "to give", where you need an object and a person to give it to, the second one is called indirect object, which in Latin was constructed with a dative case. Many verbs require an indirect object to see who is affected (positively or negatively) by the subject, like in "Me gusta esto". Beyond the obvious ones, we have other situations where instead of indirect object we start talking about dative to sort of make a differentiation (different books have different criteria, I warn you). Let's see a few:
"No te mueras" (don't die) is a plain sentence. "No te me mueras" indicates that you'd be affected by it or that it involves you very intimately. In English we do this with a simple "Don't die on me". However, in Spanish we go even further: "¡Qué bien me come!" means "He/she eats so well!", but that "me" is a remark done by a typical mother who is concerned about her children eaten so well that they grow healthily. Her children's well-being affects her, so we stick a dative here. This usage is VERY colloquial. Other examples are "Se me casa mi hija" (My daughter is getting married), where that "me" simply emphasises how the parents are being affected by her daughter leaving them after getting married. Again, very colloquial.
But there are other less colloquial situations where their usage is more standard, even in literature: "Se me ha muerto el canario" (My canary has died) sounds quite different from the previous "No te me mueras", because here it is used to indicate possession (although it could also indicate how it affects us on top of it). The alternative is to say "Se ha muerto mi canario", but this option is far far less likely than the one with the pronoun.
"Algo es difícil" is a plain sentence where no person is involved -just an objective statement. By adding "me" you reinterpret it by clarifying that you are the one who gets affected by the difficulty of that thing. But his usage is pretty common.
They are both right. I personally can't even perceive any significant different between them.
P.S. I say "Me es difícil..." quite often.
Es difícil para mí is right. Costar is a verb. Me cuesta mucho = It's very difficult for me.
