Word of the Day - confusing example "se me olvidaron"

Question

In today's Word of the Day email (July 12, 2013 - "Porque"), I am very confused by the example given.

• Español: Tuve que regresar a la oficina porque se me olvidaron las llaves de la casa.
• English: I had to return to the office because I forgot my house keys.

Since olvidarse is conjugated in the 3rd person preterite ("se me olvidaron"), it indicates that the keys did the forgetting. Shouldn't the sentence read "porque me las olvidé las llaves"? I see that it appears both ways in the definition page for "olvidar."

Can anyone shed some light here for me?

Vote for everyone. They are all correct and enlightening answers to your question. This is a great feature in Spanish especially if you don't want the blame! - Jubilado, Jul 12, 2013

Answer 1

Tough to explain, the sentence you provided "se me olvidaron" is pasive reflexive, in this kind of sentence the verb is always conjugated in third person singular or plural.

If it were just one key, we would say Se me olvidó la llave. In this case of shifting blame onto the key(s), we use a reflexive construction by saying The keys were forgotten by me.

To take full responsibility, we could say Me olvidé de las lleves, but why blame yourself when you don´t have to?

In affairs of the heart, we always blame each other during arguments, so we are direct, ie: ¡Te olvidaste de mí! (You forgot about me!), so shifting the blame here would not make sense.

We also use 3rd person plural to describe an event without naming a specific agent. This is when we don´t want to identify or we don´t know who the subject is. But in these cases it is not passive voice because the subject is the 3rd person plural, ie: Ayer mataron a dos elementos de la policía judicial (yesterday they killed two members of the judicial police).

Thanks @JulianChivi. This whole thing kind of blew my mind a little bit. In Spanish, do I ever admit to forgetting something?Do you know if olvidarse is always used with a shifted blame? Can you think of other verbs or situations where this shift happens? - lortz, Jul 15, 2013

Answer 2

In English we might / could say "the keys appear to have forgotten themselves"

of course we would be laughed at

but in Spanish it is a simple device to absolve oneself of blame and is used a lot.

Answer 3

The Spanish people are very clever and they always blame the things for getting lost or forgotten. Nothing whatsoever to do with the owner.

My glasses do it all the time, they hide fom me, on purpose!

:) - ian-hill, Jul 12, 2013

Ian, once I found them in the firde, clearly, they were hiding from me, on purpose.. - annierats, Jul 12, 2013

Indeed, they are seldom to blame themselves. I suppose the pixies wiped it right out of their memory banks.Probably the same tribe that went off with your glasses. :) - Castor77, Jul 12, 2013

@Annie - I guess they knew what a " firde " is - I haven't a clue. :) - ian-hill, Jul 12, 2013

Answer 4

Tough to explain, the sentence you provided "se me olvidaron" is pasive reflexive, in this kind of sentence the verb is always conjugated in third person singular or plural.

Answer 5

Thanks everyone! I had no idea that the keys had been forgetting themselves all this time. Do they lose themselves too?

I don;t understand this thing about the key forgetting themselves... it isn;t right! >;> - chileno, Jul 15, 2013

Answer 6

Se me olvidaron las llaves/me olvidé de la llaves/olvidé las llaves = I forgot the keys.

Some will say that the last option is a calque from English. And it is right... ;^)