Difference between divertir(le) and divertirse?

Question

My teacher is making us write sentences using 'divertirle' and 'divertirse' and he says that they have different meanings.

I know that divertirse means to have fun...

but how do i write sentences

Answer 1

Conjugating-divertirse This should help.

You can always type the word or words in question into the search box under "Ask a Question" and see if there was another post on the subject. Also you can type the words into the little blue box at the top of the screen on the right.

I´m a big fan of pointing out the resources here, and at least try to look at things before I post (and admittedly fail to understand all when I do) but since I´m trying to understand it better too... - rogspax, Jun 5, 2012

... I´m following along, and don´t see anything on divertirLE in that section. I bet he and I BOTH need more help. Well, I should only speak for myself ;) - rogspax, Jun 5, 2012

Well, it looks like you have answered the question yourself as well. Thank you. - rac1, Jun 6, 2012

Nice answer, Rac, I learned a lot :) - SonrisaDelSol, Jun 6, 2012

Gracias Sonrisa!:) - rac1, Jun 6, 2012

Answer 2

Divertirse is the reflexive infinitive. And also the conjugation you'd use for él, ella, y usted. It means to entertain-amuse oneself.

Dirvertirle would be to amuse-entertain someone else. Which I suppose isn´t strictly speaking reflexive anymore, but rather is using the indirect object pronoun le.

I think there are also some regional use variations between se and le, which I´m not at all competent to comment further on.

Let´s wait for a more accomplished speaker to jump in a clarify (or, gulp, correct). I´m just starting into this area of Spanish myself.

Buena suerte

Answer 3

Ok, here is my stab at this. The link concerns the conjugation for "divertirse", the reflexive form of the verb. This is pretty clear. "Me divierto con este juego." is "I amuse myself with this game".

However, the verb can also be used as a regular transitive verb. This is the situation when it takes an indirect object pronoun like "le". "Quiero divertirle" is "I want to entertain him".