Another direct object pronoun and "se" question.
This question has two parts. I'm trying to understand the use of direct object pronouns, so I used one in my "la palabra del día" sentence. I encountered another question in the process.
Please consider the sentence below.
La ventana se cuarteó cuando el balón la golpeó. The window cracked when the ball hit it.
My first post had two problems.
First, I used the incorrect gender of the third person singular direct object pronoun, since I carelessly placed it near the masculine el balón (I used "lo" in the first post). I now understand the "la" refers to "la ventana" which is feminine. Is that correct?
Second, my first response did not include "se". Is the use of "se" required because it precedes the verb "cuarteó" (as described in item 1 of the link below), or is it required for another reason?
Thanks!
1 Answer
La ventana se cuarteó cuando el balón la golpeó. The window cracked when the ball hit it.
First, I used the incorrect gender of the third person singular direct object pronoun, since I carelessly placed it near the masculine el balón (I used "lo" in the first post). I now understand the "la" refers to "la ventana" which is feminine. Is that correct?
Yes.
Second, my first response did not include "se". Is the use of "se" required because it precedes the verb "cuarteó" (as described in item 1 of the link below), or is it required for another reason?
"La ventana cuarteó... " means that the window is the agent of the action. It would be like "The window destroyed...", but it is pretty unusual to see "aggressive" windows breaking things, don't you think? While in English you say "I broke the TV" and the TV broke" simply by changing the order (and omitting "I"), you can say "I destroyed the TV", but not "The TV destroyed" (destroyed what?). This time you need a different construction: "got destroyed". Well... Spanish is more consistent in this cases: almost all of these verbs behave like "destroy": you can't just change the order and expect them to make sense. The pronoun "se" tells you that you should change the interpretation form an "aggressive" window that goes breaking balls, to a window getting broken. See my explanation on the reference section. I have explained this many times.
