Está comiendo vs Se está comiendo

Question

Aprendo algún de mi española en el "Live Mocha" sitio web. Hay un ejemplo que dice," Ella se está comiendo un tazón de uvas." Pero, cuando uso "Span¡shD!ct" para traducir al español la frase: "She is eating a bowl of grapes.", me da: "Ella está comiendo un tazón de uvas".

¿Hay una diferencia entre "Ella se está comiendo" y "Ella está comiendo"?

Answer 1

As Fredbong intimates, comerse can mean to eat up, however, bear in mind it doesn't only apply to food. You can eat up resources or capital finance etc, example,

En un mes se comió toda la herencia - He blew all his inheritance within a month

Good answer and insight. Thanks. Up til now, I'd only heard it with food. - rogspax, Mar 26, 2013

Answer 2

My first thought was that this must be, due to topicalicion, a use of comerse.

And then I googled it, and it seems others agree, at least that it is a use of comerse.

Comerse means, essentially, to thoroughly and completely eat something. :edit originally I defined comerse poorly.

In English I would say that" Ella se está comiendo un tazón de uvas." is saying " she is really into those grapes that she is eating."

I think you're right. - annierats, Mar 26, 2013

I think that sounds right, though I haven't heard it in the progressive before. That might have confused me, but your interpretation certainly makes sense. - rogspax, Mar 26, 2013

Answer 3

I remember learning comerse as to "eat up" or "eat all up", so it's safely out of the realm of any sort of cannibalism. Our scenario was the wolf wanting to eat things up (entirely) in the fairlytale "Little Red Riding Hood". I've since heard it used pretty commonly, in cases such as one friend giving another grief for taking the last piece of pizza or hogging the chips and salsa. It seems pretty widely used.

Answer 4

I agrree with your, one would think this meant she was a cannibal, but I think it's in common usage.

It seems incorrect to me too, but, I have learnt, if we want to speakSpanish, we have to go with the flow. ¡Ya me estoy comiendo mis palabras!

Answer 5

Here is an excerpt from spanish.about.com that talks about using the reflexive to intensify the verb:

In some cases, putting a verb in the reflexive form can make it more intense, as we do sometimes in English by adding a particle. For example, ir means "to go," but irse is usually translated "to go away." Similarly, comer means "to eat," but comerse might be translated as "to eat up," as in se comió cinco tacos, he ate up five tacos.

So this would imply that "Ella se está comiendo un tazón de uvas" means that she (herself) is eating up all of the grapes.

Thanks to all for looking into this.