Reflexive, Indirect, and Direct object pronouns in one sentence.

Question

I was wondering if it was possible for a sentence to include all three pronoun types in it. I was thinking Se habla la verdad a todos. which would be Se les la habla. However, you can't have two pronouns start with "l", so one turns to se, so would it be Se se la habla, this doesn't seem right. Has anyone seen this or know what to do?

Hello, welcome to the forum! - rac1, Jan 31, 2013

Answer 1

Sorry to correct you, but it is wrong to say : Se le habla la verdad. You must use the verb: decir or contar

In Spanish, we can perfectly say: Se les dijo la verdad. But I'm afraid that in here, the pronoun "se" is not a reflexive one, but an "impersonal" In your example, the sentence is a "pasiva refleja" which means that seems an active one, but in fact is a passive. You can guess when the "se" is a passive one because there is no subject in the sentence. If you ask the verb "who" said the truth, you'll get no answer, as we know someone said the truth, but we are not said "who"

However, I can think of other examples so that you can see the difference between the different "se":

Se comió la comida--- (Se is pronominal. It has no function in the sentence= comerse is a pronominal verb, which means that can have two forms: comer or comerse)

Se rompió la ventana--- (Se is an impersonal one because we don't know who broke the window)

Se le rompió la ventana--- (Se is a reflexive Se le rompió la ventana a él/ He broke it)

A trick that I use with my students to understand the difference between the pronominal "se" and the reflexive "se" is asking the verb ¿A quién?. If you can answer: Se le rompió a él, Se le rompió a ella, se nos rompió a nosotros that is reflexive.

However, if you say: Se comió la comida. ¿A quién se comió la comida? A nadie, there is no answer, because the "se" is not directed to anyone, it is just a part of the verb, not a part of the sentence.

Well, "Se rompió la ventana"...yes, se is impersonal. - soconnor123, Oct 3, 2017

But se le rompió la ventana is the same construction...se is still impersonal, not reflexive. The "le" is called dativo de interés, because it affects the person. - soconnor123, Oct 3, 2017

But we cannot call the "se" a reflexive in the case of "Se le rompió a él" because he did not break himself, and the window did not break itself, so the subject does not equal the direct object. - soconnor123, Oct 3, 2017

Answer 2

Reflexive? Se me lo olvidó (que es eso)!

Yes, reflexive. If you ask: ¿A quién se le olvidó? You can answer: Se me olvidó a mí. So, it is reflexive. "lo" is impossible in your example :) - irenean, Feb 1, 2013

Sigh, I know but it sounded good in my head... lol - paramedichk, Feb 3, 2013

Answer 3

I'm not sure, but it seems that saying that would be so ambiguous anyway that you would be better off just using two pronouns.

Answer 4

You cannot have all three consecutively preceding a verb. As far as all three being in the same sentence, I'm sure you could have a long sentence with multiple clauses in it so that the whole sentence would contain at least one of each of the three kinds of pronouns you're asking about.