Muevo hacia ti.
If, for some reason, I wanted to use the pronoun for the subject in this sentence, would it be "Yo" or "Me". I'm pretty sure it's not necessary, but if I wanted to emphasize, which would I be using?
Or is this a dumb question?
3 Answers
More information about this, because this topic always confuses English speakers very much.
Pronominal verbs are always conjugated with their respective pronouns (me, te, se, nos, os, se) in agreement, like "Reflexive verbs". But they are not reflexive. Rather, Reflexive verbs are a subtype of pronominal verbs.
The so called "Reflexive verbs" refer to sentences in which the object is the same as the subject, this is, I perform an action to myself.
Me peino, me visto, me lavo la cara, I-->to myself.
Te lavas los dientes, te pones la camisa, you-->to yourself.
Therefore, any action that you can perform to yourself can be, with the reflexive pronoun attached, called a "reflexive construction". A verb itself is not reflexive by nature: I can wash my face, or wash someone elses face.
On the other hand: pronominal verbs that you are surely familiar with. They should not be translated as "to myself". It's, simply, the pronoun changes its meaning.
Llamar: to call
Llamarse: to have (something) as a name
Ir: to go
Irse: to leave
Levantar: To lift
Levantarse: to get up.
And the list could go on and on and on...
Like a similar recent question, I believe this may not be an either/or scenario as your question supposes.
First, in general, one can always use the subject pronoun, even if it isn't often used in practice, regardless of whether the verb is reflexive.
So, if you're moving yourself towards the other person, then the verb you probably want is not mover, but moverse.
Assuming that's correct, it becomes (Yo) me muevo hacia ti.
The me is actually required, and the Yo optional, thus my leading off with saying it's not an either/or. It´s a both,, with one of them possibly unspoken (the Yo)
A very fair question.
Hello, Peter.
No, this is not a dumb question at all.
The answer to your question is: You need the "ME", and you can add the "yo" for emphasis if you want, but that one is optional. The former is not.
The thing works as folllows:
In Spanish, we have two verbs:
Mover- to move something. (muevo, mueves, mueve, movemos, movéis, mueven) (transitive verb)
Moverse - to describe a movement, to move towards (me muevo, te mueves, se mueve, nos movemos, os movéis, se mueven) (intransitive verb)
Now, if you think about it, the latter is the one you want to use. It's a pronominal verb (often badly called reflexive). Note that if you don't conjugate it with the pronoun attached, you are actually changing the meaning of the verb, because in a pronominal verb, the infinitive and the pronoun are inseparable. It's just like "to look+for" something is not the same as "to look something (??????)"
So, the sentence:
muevo hacia ti
Is not possible in Spanish. It makes me think... Huh! What are you moving towards me? It sounds incomplete. Unlike in English, mover in Spanish is a transitive verb. It sounds as bad as saying. "I like very much"
Me muevo hacia ti is correct, because precisely, "moverse" is intransitive! like so many other pronominal verbs (irse, arrodillarse, sentarse, llamarse, ....etc)
Yo me muevo hacia ti is correct too. The YO pronoun is here highlighting that it's YOU, and not anyone else, the one who is moving.
Forgive my mistakes in the English, and please correct me, I always welcome corrections very much.
