'No se te olvide cuando ........' Why this construction?
chris-keen In Spanish Dictionary as part of the explanation of 'respetable' is the following 'no se te olvide cuando salgas con tus amigos que vienes de una familia respetable'.
Why is it not 'no te olvide'. What is the purpose of 'se'.
Many thanks.
7 Answers
It's contructed as a reflexive verb with an indirect object, but the roles are switched.
I don't understand this either, as the 'te' would appear to be the reflexive part, leaving the 'se' unexplained.
Perhaps it's one of those passive or 'accidental'/'unintended' constructions combined with a reflexive, that would at least make sense in my little brain. If it were a regular imperative reflexive, it would use olvides, so I have to assume it's a passive construction of a reflexive verb.
As usual when I'm completely lost, I could be full of crap, but I wanted to push the convo forward.
(and thanks to Rodney for the effort, even if we didn't get it)
Olvidarse is a bit peculiar.
The thing that is being forgotten is the active part.
It would translate roughly as:
Don't let the fact that you're from a good family let itself be forgotten by you when you go out with..
I hope this helps, it's not avery clear explanation,but olvidarse is not a very clear concept, except it puts the blame on the forgotten thing or concept, that got themselves forgotten. Nothing to do with you!
Somebody will explain better in a minute.
The se belongs to the verb olvidarse, which is reflexive.
That's the simple answer. It get's a little complicated. Try a search on olvidarse here in the forum or in Google and you will find plenty of more complete grammar explanations.
It is there because of emphasis.
Don't you forget = don't forget
No olvides = no te olvides
I understand your question now. All that's left is to see if I can explain it, LOL.
I'll give it the old college try, but grammar isn't really my thing, so I hope I don't confuse you more.
Rog spax is correct with his statement:
Perhaps it's one of those passive or 'accidental'/'unintended' constructions
Se olvide -- Literally translated as "it forgets" or "don't let it forget". The se just has to be there. Not much of an explanation I know, but that's the way it is with passive contstructions.
The next question is "it forgets who? -- It forgets you, which is why we include the te.
The equivalent of "No se te olvide ..." would be equivalent to "Don't let it slip your mind..." as opposed to "don't forget"., which would be "no olvides...".
Read my blog posts. They won't explain the grammar, but they will give you a better idea of how to say "I forgot". Start with #1, it appears at the bottom of the list.
http://myspanishnotes.blogspot.com/search/label/Forgetting
If I find a link to a good grammar explanation I'll post it.
These links might also help.
