Use of "se" with verbs?
Was talking with my native Spanish fiance, and she corrected me with "ella estaba quejandose". I asked her why "se" is needed, because it's not need for any other verbs I can think of in that context(like "ella estaba corriendo"), and she said she doesn't know. So, anyone know? I can't figure it out...
2 Answers
English has lost its original reflexive forms, which had the same origins as the Spanish "se" (and many other Indo-European languages), and it shows a tendency to create intransitive forms out of forms that were originally expressed with reflexive pronouns (which were not exactly reflexive anyway). The old "se" reflexives were replaced with the modern "oneself" series, which are still used in a few verbs like in the past, like in "behave oneself", similar to "comportarse", "se porter" in French, "sich benehmen" in German. Understanding how these reflexive came to be is a very long story, but suffice to say that originally it was "quejar" and then it became pronominal.
If you look in the dictionary you will see that when it has its customary meaning it is listed as a pronominal verb.
quejarse in SD dictionary The suggested list that pops up when entering quejar only lists quejarse; not quejar.. It is a verb that is normally used pronominally.
