"Darse cuenta de..." and direct object pronouns.
As far as I have learned, in Spanish, the phrase "darse cuenta de..." means "to realize". However, in a couple of sentences I was trying to write, I needed to say "to realize" a lot. That got me thinking. Can you replace "darse cuenta de..." with something like "darsela de (ello)", that "I realized it" becomes "Me la doy de ello"? Or am I completely off the mark?
3 Answers
My question is whether I can replace the "cuenta" with "la", so that instead of "Me doy cuenta de..." it becomes "Me la doy de.
I get what you're saying and it's a great question.
No, I don't believe that you can cut out the "cuenta" and replace it with "la" because "Darse cuenta" is a set phrase in Spanish.
Maybe someone else has heard of this? Anyone?
Mariana said:
No, I don't believe that you can cut out the "cuenta" and replace it with "la" because "Darse cuenta" is a set phrase in Spanish.
And she's right on the money.
Darse cuenta de algo is a construction meaning to realize something. Algo can be substituted by pronouns as direct objects such as: eso, ello, ti, ellos, ellas, but never can be replaced using an object such as lo/le.
Maxwell_R, you can conjugate the verb "dar".
"Darse" is a reflexive verb = dar + se
It's the same thing that in English...
In the past:
I realized I had forgotten my keys at home.
(Me di cuenta que había perdido las llaves en casa)
In the present:
I realise that study Chinese doesn't worth it. It's very complicated.
Me doy cuenta que estudiar chino no merece la pena. Es muy complicado.
In the future:
You'll realise that your wife doesn't love you, when some day you find your best friend into your wardrobe.
Te darás cuenta que tu mujer no te quiere, ....
