lo, te, me, se
While using Rosetta Stone, I was given the following sentences:
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¿Donde se habla español?
¿Te acuerdas de su numero de teléfono?
¿Quién lo escribió este libro?
Me he olvidado dondé compramos esto.
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Could anyone explain what 'lo', 'se', 'me', and 'te' mean? What is the grammatical purpose of each? When should I use each?
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Your help is much appreciated.
2 Answers
That's a pretty big subject and you have a bit of a mixture there:
1) se = reflexive pronoun,
This pronoun has many, many uses, but for your example it's being used in an impersonal construction that allows you to speak of an action without stating who exactly does it.
Se habla español = Spanish is spoken, or 'they' speak Spanish
This article about 'se' may shed some more light on its uses.
(NB the other reflexive pronouns are me, te, se, nos, os)
2) some verbs are inherently pronominal that means that they always go with a reflexive pronoun, you'll find them in the dictionary with 'se' attached but when they are used the se is removed from the end, you bring it around to the front of the verb and change it to match the person doing the action of the verb.
Acordarse is one such verb = to remember
To use it you remove the 'se' and then you would conjugate it in the present tense this way using the relevant reflexive pronoun in the front of the verb:
me acuerdo = I remember
te acuerdas = you remember
se acuerda = he, she, it, you (formal) remember(s)
nos acordamos = we remember
os acordáis = you remember
se acuerdan = you (pl formal) remember, they remember
3) lo = direct object pronoun = 'it'
Here's a bit more about direct and indirect object pronouns.
4) olvidarse is another of those pronominal verbs so the 'me' is the reflexive pronoun that matches 'yo' he olvidado.
You will also come across olvidar (without the pronoun) here's a bit more info on those two verbs.
I'm using Rosetta Stone also. The articles on this site under learn/spanish grammer/ pronouns are a big help on this subject. What level are you up to?
