Indirect object pronouns for medical interviewing questions
I am confused about why "le"is needed in the following sentence:
¿Le empieza el dolor a una hora específica?
The book says that the English translation is, "Does the pain occur at any specific time?" I am guessing that maybe you need to include the "le" to indicate that you are asking about the patient's pain in particular, and not some random pain being experienced by some random person somewhere in the world.
I am also confused about this sentence:
¿Se le han tomado radiografías de los huesos?
The translation given is, "Have you had X-rays of your bones?" I am not sure why you need to include "Se le" at the beginning. If I were asking this, I would probably say, "Han tomado radiografías de sus huesos?"
If anyone could clarify this for me, I would greatly appreciate it.
1 Answer
I think your understanding of the first sentence is right on. Think of it this way:
Does your pain start at any specific time?
Does the pain start at any specific time for you?
The second sentece is this "no fault" construction that we see.
Firstly, we need to use the passive se here, since we are not going to mention who exactly gave you the X-Rays. That leaves us with:
"Se han tomado radiografías..."
..which states "Has one gotten X-Rays...."
With the introduction of the "le" it tells us who is the person who was receiving the X-Ray. This "no fault" se mentions that something happened, and it happened to you, but you didn;t exactly cause thithing to happen. For example:
Se me cayó mi teléfono cellular. I dropped my cell phone or more literally.."My cell phone fell (to me)....or even more literally..."My cell phone fell but I wasn't the one who caused it but it it affecting me."
So this "no fault se" works to remove the blame from you, and to remove who caused the action.
