Who's eating who?

Question

Let's say I want to translate the following sentence to Spanish:

The spider ate the ant.

If I put, "La araña se la comió la hormiga." would it be correct? If so, how would one know which was doing the eating--the spider, or the ant--since the order of the nouns doesn't matter?

Would it be enough to just put the letter "a" right before the word "hormiga"?

Thanks for helping me.

Good one... :) - NikkiLR, Apr 1, 2014

I hope you don't mind me supplying a title ;) - Kiwi-Girl, Apr 1, 2014

Haha thanks! - SlimNm, Apr 1, 2014

Answer 1

An important point is that 'comer' is 'to eat' but 'comerse' is 'to eat (all) up' so you can use either but the meaning will be slightly different.

La araña comió a la hormiga.

The spider ate the ant.

or

La araña se comió a la hormiga.

The spider ate the ant all up.

OMG haha! Thanks for that meme, I'll never forget how to do this ever again! :D So I guess the problem was just the personal "a". And you're right, I just used "comerse" because it's funner to use. Lol. - SlimNm, Apr 1, 2014

Thanks - 00551866, Apr 1, 2014

De nada, happy to help :) - Kiwi-Girl, Apr 1, 2014

The so-called personal 'a' is optional here but it can be used (surprisingly even with inanimate objects at times) to remove any ambiguity between the subject and the object so it works well in this case. - Kiwi-Girl, Apr 1, 2014

I don't think the "a" is needed. "a mi perro" is correct because the personal "a" can apply to pets, but I doubt it extends to ants. - gringojrf, Apr 1, 2014

as I mentioned as far as I understand it's optional, many grammar books will tell you that it's only for known people and pets but that's not quite true, it's use can extend to ants or even inanimate things and it is a useful tool to remove ambiguity. - Kiwi-Girl, Apr 1, 2014

Answer 2

I think it would be:

La araña le comió la hormiga.

La araña le comió la panza de la hormiga.

I could correctly say: "La mujer le tomó el café." but with animals using "le" indicates a part of and not the whole like it does with people and things.

I think your answer is more correct than mine, but it's still ambiguous as to who is doing the eating--the spider, or the ant? - SlimNm, Apr 1, 2014

le refers to the object of the verb which is the ant. The subject, the spider, is doing the eating. - 00551866, Apr 1, 2014

It takes some time to get used to it but you will. - 00551866, Apr 1, 2014

According to my understanding, you should put the letter "a" right before "la hormia" for the sentence to make sense. - SlimNm, Apr 1, 2014

I am still learning myself and by giving my best shot then seing the correct helps more than just looking at the answer. - 00551866, Apr 1, 2014

Answer 3

Here are some examples I found:

• La araña se comió la mosca de una mordida.

• El perro se comió la tarea.

• Un tiburón se comió a un surfista en Australia.

Answer 4

I talked with several Ticos and they said do not use the "a". Several stated it sounds bad but one explained because it is in the past. Keep in mind it is not out of a text book but from the streets of Costa Rica so it may be different in other areas.

¿La araña comió la hormiga? Without using "se" it needs to be a question.

La araña se comió la hormiga.

La araña le comió la panza de la hormiga. With animals using "le" indicates a part of and not the whole like it does with people and things.

To use the "a" write it similar to this.

La araña se va/fue a comer a la hormiga.

Thanks! That's interesting. - SlimNm, Apr 3, 2014

Answer 5

I will put in my answer, even though in the time it took me type it you seem to have been adequately answered, but no one addressed why "la" does not belong in your attempt.

comerse implies to eat something up, to devour it entirely, to finish it off-

comer implies to eat something in general

So for I eat apples- como manzanas

for I ate the apple- me comí la manzana.

The second part is that redundant pronouns are redundant indirect pronouns, not direct pronouns.

Le di la manzana a Juan.

I gave the apple to Juan.

Le refers to Juan because he is the indirect object, and you have to mark the indirect object in Spanish, even if it comes later. Since la manzana is a direct object, a marker is not needed for it. You do not say "se la di la manzana a Juan."

"You do not say "se la da la manzana a Juan."" You mean I --shouldn't-- say it, rather than, --it's grammatically incorrect--, right? - SlimNm, Apr 1, 2014

it just means that I don't think it is what would naturally come out of a native speaker. To me what a native speaker would say is the goal, rules exist only to help you approach that. But my only test is real life. - bosquederoble, Apr 1, 2014

Thanks, I completely agree. I just wanted to be sure I understood. - SlimNm, Apr 1, 2014

Le di ;) (di = I gave) - Kiwi-Girl, Apr 1, 2014

Comí la manazana = I ate the apple Me comí la manazana = I ate the apple all up - Kiwi-Girl, Apr 1, 2014

I fixed the mismatched tenses. To me I ate the apple implies the apple is gone. I would say I ate part of the apple, some of the apple, or from the apple otherwise. - bosquederoble, Apr 1, 2014

Hey, interesting! Another interesting thing is that in the South (of USA) some people would say "Cómete una manzana" as "Eat yourself an apple" - SlimNm, Apr 1, 2014