pronoun "te"
In this sentence "te ves bien hoy", what type of pronoun is the "te" and can you please give me an english translation that includes "te"? I can't understand why you use the tú form of ver with a 'you' pronoun. In my head it becomes "you look nice to yourself today" and i think it should be "you yourself look nice today". Thank you. I'm driving myself bananas trying to find an explanation on the 'net.
5 Answers
The appearance belongs to you, so you look nice (te ves...). But it's like my Russian teacher told me once while I was agonizing over conjugation, "Just say it correctly and that's all."
The more you compare languages, the more difficult you make it for yourself.
This sentence—te ves bien—could go two ways (I think):
(1) you see yourself well (that is, a real reflexive pronoun as you want it to be in your mind) and
(2) you look good/fine. (this meaning is more difficult for our minds to catch hold of)
You may Lazarus's more detailed explanations, which were added to SD's reference section some time ago...
I have come to the conclusion, warranted or not, that verbs and pronouns are very connected in Spanish in a way they are not in English. This theory has a little evidence in that in writings by less educated Spanish spellers, I will often see the object pronouns actually connected to the verb as though they were a part of the verb (they might write teves bien or medices, for example)
In this sentence "te ves bien hoy", what type of pronoun is the "te" and can you please give me an english translation that includes "te"?
We can't, because there isn't one!
I can't understand why you use the tú form of ver with a 'you' pronoun. In my head it becomes "you look nice to yourself today" and i think it should be "you yourself look nice today".
Well... you are definitely going in the right direction. That "te" forces any hearer to pay a special attention to that person, so most natives will hold their attention on that person's appearance, just on request.
"Ves bien hoy" is simply "You can perceive images well today, my fellow robot", while "Te ves bien hoy" makes the hearer focus on the actual person's perception on his/her own self.
Omit the te and what is left?
You look (at what?, at whom?) [transitive verb] well today.
Te vez (you look...intransitive-no object) Chalk it up to "detransitizing se" if you must, but I like Julian's answer much more.
(or Lazarus' which wasn't there at the time).
I think how Spanish uses the object pronouns may be one of, if not the, most difficult aspects of the language.
After three years (or maybe four, I'm losing count), I still don't really understand it, but my brain is becoming more and more used to them.
