About Accidental sentence construction
I have problems with the use of se with certain verbs in accidental sentences. In the example following the verb acts like gustar which I can understand but I cannot A) Put the sentence into English like as with gustar ( me gusta el gato - the cat gives pleasure to me ) B) nor can I get my head round the use of la - I would have thought that it was an indirect pronoun which refers to la cocinera but for this to be the case it would have been le. Any input or help would be appreciated.
Pedimos una tortilla española pero a la cocinera ___se la olvidaron_____ las patatas.
3 Answers
This site has a helpful video lesson on this type sentence construction. Here is the link. It takes about 15 minutes to watch, and gives several examples of sentences describing accidents in a manner to limit responsibility.
You will need to forward about 7 minutes into the video to reach the discussion on this type sentence construction.
It helped me.
Se le olvidaron las patatas.
Things happen differently in Spanish. Things tend to 'just happen' or the blame is allocated to inanimate objects rather than the person responsible, I've often wondered about and was indeed going to pose a question about this - I wonder if it a coincidence that Spanish language often removes the fault from the actor and people where I live, in Colombia, rarely take responsibility for anything.
In this case, the potatoes forgot themselves to the cook. See what I mean?
I don't see how to fill the blanks without making the sentence weird, I mean, I just would say Pedimos una tortilla española pero a la cocinera se le olvidaron las patatas.
