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Nació o Se Nació

Nació o Se Nació

3
votes

I am still plugging away at this. Just completed 2.5 reflexive verbs and the morning routine. Paralee made the point that anything done to oneself should follow with the reflexive, although in english it is just understood. In the 2.6 vocabulary I noticed a reflexive for "He died", "Se murió", I'm thinking, OK, he died himself. Then I come to the next word and it was just Nació. She was born, no reflexive. Wasn't she born herself? Se nació? Perhaps I'm reading to much into this, but I thought I would ask.

Thanks, SMiles0812

8425 views
updated Oct 22, 2010
posted by SMiles0812
Don't feel bad...I had the same question, and Lazarus and G explained it to me, too. - Echoline, Oct 22, 2010

3 Answers

7
votes

You can't die to yourself and you can't make yourself born either. "Morirse" has a special unpredictable extra nuance added to the meaning of "morir", but it has nothing to do with reflexivity, and "nacerse" does not exist.

Caerse does not mean to fall yourself, but to fall as a result of an accident, and there are literally thousands of verbs with SE where you don't do it to yourself. It does not make sense to call these verbs reflexive.

updated Nov 15, 2012
edited by lazarus1907
posted by lazarus1907
4
votes

As a curious aside, the expression "se nació" is often used to refer to something that has gone moldy.

alt text

"Ese pan se nació (or está nacido) - ¡bótalo!"

That bread has gone moldy - throw it away!

(We'll eat the mouse instead - nos comeremos al ratón más bien) grin

updated Oct 22, 2010
posted by Gekkosan
how interesting.... - Echoline, Oct 22, 2010
Gracias, muy bueno. - SMiles0812, Oct 22, 2010
2
votes

(Él) se murió ...... correct.

(Ella) nació ....... correct.

Lazarus states "....."Morirse" has a special unpredictable extra nuance added to the meaning of "morir", but it has nothing to do with reflexivity,...." which I don´t understand completely, but which further enforces the idea that the more immersion in the language you can allow yourself, the better.

updated Oct 22, 2010
posted by 005faa61