Unintentional "se"

Question

I've been trying to find more information lately on how and when to use the unintentional "se" - for example, "¿Se te han perdieron las llaves?", "Se me olvidó"

I feel like I kind of get it, but I don't really understand WHEN to use it (I mean, how does someone forget something intentionally, anyway?), and I'd like a lot more practice. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Answer 1

I've been trying to find more information lately on how and when to use the unintentional "se" - for example, "¿Se te han perdieron las llaves?", "Se me olvidó"

Some of these English "Spanish-grammar terms" can be confusing and not necessarily correct or complete. In this case, the se is shifting responsibility of forgetting the keys from the person who had them to the keys themselves, so we can say the keys forgot themselves. The me here indicates who was affected by these keys becoming forgotten.

However it´s normally accusatory when we ask about someone forgetting something, so here we would just say something like ¿No traes las llaves? The respondant then is the one wanting to escape blame, so he could say Se me olvidaron. Remember olvidar must be conjugated to singular/plural of the subject.

With the word perder we can do the same thing. I don´t know about the usage in Las Vegas USA, but in Mexico perdí las llaves can be said and it is not weird at all - it´s quite common when the subject is taking responsibility for the loss. In general usage we tend to shift blame more with olvidar than with perder.

Answer 2

Well, my advice would be to use it when you want to put emphasis on the fact that it was not your fault, that the keys just "jumped" right out of your hand and you couldn't do anything about it. If you want to take responsibility for the loss of the keys, then use the normal "I lost the keys" construction.

By the way, it should be "Se te han perdido las llaves" or "Se te perdieron las llaves".

Right - it is the structure that all politicians use to avoid responsibility for anything. - ian-hill, May 12, 2013

Haha isn't that so true... - PumpkinCalabaza, May 12, 2013

Answer 3

In Spanish sounds weird to say "perdí las llaves", when we say "se me perdieron las llaves" that has to be translated to "I lost the keys"

Las llaves se perdieron = the keys got lost