Caerse -vs- Caer

Question

Is 'caerse' used when a person falls?

La mujer se cae. La mujer se cayó. Me caigo. Me caí.

And 'caer' for an object?

El árbol cae. El árbol cayó.

Answer 1

No. "Caer" means to go down under the gravitational pull, regardless of how the motion began. "Caerse" focuses on the transition from being in equilibrium or stable position to begin to fall. For example, a tree "se ha caído" (has fallen) because it was originally standing, while the snow "cae" because we do imagine it being resting on the cloud until it was dropped or something.

Thank you for the help! - Tosh, Aug 10, 2011

Answer 2

In English, we say "fall down", "stand up", etc. In Spanish, you cannot really add "arriba" or "abajo" to the end of a verb, so that's where the the reflexive pronoun comes in.

So, with that said, I believe "caerse" is more of "to fall over", whereas "caer" is just "to fall".

Answer 3

Thanks for the replies!

Answer 4

So, with that said, I believe "caerse" is more of "to fall over", whereas "caer" is just "to fall".

The idea is close, but it is not quite the same. In English surely you can say "The tree fell last year", but in Spanish people don't normally say "El árbol cayó el año pasado", unless they try to sound formal or literary on purpose. As it is, it sounds almost as if it died or fell from the sky, because "caer" does not focus on the transition from stable to unstable, while "caerse" does.

True, "fall over" has a same implications about balance and no longer maintaining an upright position, but "fall" alone can express sudden falls and collapses in a way that "caer" rarely does. Here is the main difference, and that's why I bothered trying to explain it into so much detail instead of providing rough translations that do not give the full picture.

Are you saying that things that normally fall (e.g., snow) caer while things that normally do not fall (e.g., a tree) caerse? - webdunce, Aug 10, 2011

Answer 5

Caerse is the reflexive form of caer. It makes it more like:

the woman, she was the 'thing' that fell, or 'me, i fell down'

You can use the reflexive for objects:

la agua se me cayo. an indirect way to say i dropped the water would be similar to "it fall on me" kind of like blame pushing. (it wasnt my fault, it just fell on me!)

"Cayó" has an accent and there is nothing reflexive there, because it could have happened without you touching it at all. - lazarus1907, Aug 10, 2011