"Se me fue .." en correo electrónico

Question

Recibí un correo electrónico por mí amiga pero con nada en ello. Entonces recibí un otro correo y ella dijo, "Se me fue el correo antes del tiempo." Entiendo el significado, jaja, pero estoy teniendo una problema entender la gramática de, "Se me fue .." ¿Cualquier ideas? ¿Por qué usar los pronombres "se me ... " antes "fue"?

Something to do with "se" being "it" and "me" being ??? She is saying "it went" but how does "me" fit into the picture grammatically?

Me gusta, "Lo envié prematuramente" mucho mejor.

The me refers to the sender - it sent itself on me. Although you'd not use that phrase in English, compare to 'he walked out on me', 'they pulled a fast one on us' etc. - afowen, May 22, 2012

Answer 1

"Se fue" is third person/thing conjugation of the verb "Irse" He/she or it went "me fuí" being first person so "me" is out of place in the sentence, Irse is a reflexive verb and needs the appropriate pronoun and the verb Ir doesn't take a pronoun. Ir means to go and Irse means to go away.

The me means that it happened to the person. In this context 'it sent itself on me'. It's normal in many constructions, most annoyingly 'se me olvido' - it forgot itself on me, rather than I forgot it. - afowen, May 22, 2012

I'm gettin' it, I'm gettin' it, it happened to "me". Yes, there are some subtle nuances to this statement because it indicates that "I didn't mean to do it; it did it to me." - Pablo-Peligroso, May 23, 2012

Answer 2

"Se me fue el correo antes del tiempo" is perfect.

• Lo envié prematuramente. = No one will use this expression.
• Don't stress too much to fit the language grammatically. There are many expressions that you just need to learn and enjoy! English is LOADED with them!

Haha, I should have known better than to try a literal translation. You're right that English is just as loaded with exspressions that don't seem to make sense from the other side of the language gap. - Pablo-Peligroso, May 23, 2012