Feb 7th word of the day..ensuciar

Question

Hola,

The 'Word of the Day' site for 2/7/14 defined ensuciar as 'to get dirty'. To my knowledge, 'to get dirty' should be ensuciarse. Ensuciar is 'to (make) dirty'. Am I correct?

Saludos, Marvin

Answer 1

We can spend a lively twenty minutes arguing over this, but as far as I know, ensuciarse is just another form of ensuciar.

In Spanish, there is really nothing, in my opinion, that is a 'perfect reflexive verb'. There are verbs that get used reflexively (to be nitpicky, pronominally), and ensuciar is just one of them. Try translating ensuciarse in the SD, and you will find yourself redirected to the page for ensuciar.

It is the same deal as, for example, llamar. The WOTD would probably list its meanings as 'to call; to be called; to have the name of' despite llamarse being the appropriate 'verb' for the last use. Llamarse = llamar + se, nothing abnormal or worth getting a separate WOTD for.

Hope I helped you.

I have been told that the only "perfect reflexive"verb is "quejarse". Just a thought. But Marvin has a point the difference between a normal verb form and is pronomial/reflexive form can be significant. - gringojrf, Feb 8, 2014