Me ha tocado

Question

So I know "me toca" is my turn and "me sigue tocando" is, it's still my turn, so "me ha tocado la primitiva" is "I've won the lottery"? How does that work? Gracias.

Answer 1

So I know "me toca" is my turn and "me sigue tocando" is, it's still my turn, so "me ha tocado la primitiva" is "I've won the lottery"? How does that work? Gracias.

You have to use imagination to picture these uses. Imagine several people lined up waiting to be selected. Someone walks in front of them, and this person touches one of them -the lucky one- in the forehead. Now we can say "Te toca", and the person can say "Me toca". (all this is purely created, by the way)

Now imagine the lottery flying around the country, "hoping" to find a person to give him/her the lucky touch. "A esa persona le ha tocado la lotería".

These verbs must have had been used in a similar sort of metaphorical or metonymic fashion at some point, but nowadays, natives use it without wondering where they come from or why they are the way the are. What I've done for you is to make up my own metaphors to explain them.

By the way, before anyone says "How weird is Spanish!", English contains thousands of these uses, which most people never stop to over-analyse. Some much more bizarre than the ones above. Fortune not only touches you, but even knocks at your door. Think of it.

Me ha tocado. He has played an instrument for me.

This sounds more like "He has touched me". For songs I'd say "Me ha tocado una canción", "Me la ha tocado" (careful using this one without a context).

:) Eres un fenómeno - cogumela, Jan 3, 2011

I love the visualization of the lottery flying around tapping people on the forehead. That's a great explanation. - alba3, Jan 3, 2011

What If I said "me ha tocado la flauta?" I can see that not going over well. - jeezzle, Jan 3, 2011

Answer 2

What If I said "me ha tocado la flauta?" I can see that not going over well. - jeezzle 28 secs ago

That's quite different. Here the other person "touches" the instrument (in order to play it), and it does it for you me ("me"). Now the subject is the player, the instrument the direct object, and you the indirect object. The lottery and the turn are the subjects, because they select you.

Answer 3

I think that this is just one of those words that can be used in a lot of different contexts.

I don't think that "Me ha tocado la lotería" has anything to do w/it being my turn for the lottery but is more like saying "I've hit the lottery" (or in Spanish "the lottery hit me")

Another example: Me tocó el gordo - I hit the jackpot. (but it's backwards in Spanish, the jackpot hit me)

Answer 4

When I read the tittle of your question, I didn't know if you meant:

Me ha tocado la lotería ( I've won the lottery) Yes, it works.

Me ha tocado. It's my turn

Me ha tocado. She touched me

Me ha tocado. He has played an instrument for me.

Tocar has 28 entries in the RAE dictionary.

So "to win" is one? Me ha tocado.... It has touched me, it has won me, I guess I can't see how I would word it unless I think of won as also touch, like it was my turn to win. It touched on me, the winning of the primitiva. I don't know. ;) - jeezzle, Jan 3, 2011