Arreglarselas

Question

What does las mean in the word arreglarselas. For example: Se las arregle para llegar a tiempo.

Answer 1

• I think you mean "Me las arreglé para llegar a tiempo" unless you want to say "I helped him/her to get there on time"

  • It means: I was able to make it there on time"

Arreglarselas: You use it when you are trying to say that you could go through with something and succedeed. That you were able to achieve something.

Me las arregle para escaparme de mi casa.

I made it through sneaking out of my home.

I think what I'm trying to ask is what does las stand for in the word arreglarselas? - spgirl, Oct 18, 2011

Either that you did it for someone else or that someone else did it themselves. It depends on the context. - rpem, Oct 19, 2011

Answer 2

For example: Se las arregle para llegar a tiempo.

More context would be helpful to know exactly what´s happening here, but to use your word arreglárselas in another context, ie: "Las paredes de la casa que están construyendo están chuecas. Hay que arreglárselas" (The walls of the house they are building are crooked. They need to be fixed).

And as rpem has mentioned, it is used to mean arranging a positive outcome.

For your example, can you say "tenemos que enderezarlas"(las paredes)? :) - cristalino, Oct 17, 2011

Sure, but this is now in active voice - not passive - 005faa61, Oct 17, 2011

Answer 3

To manage to do something.