accusative pronoun vs. The accidental reflexive construction!
http://spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/1079/se-pronoun-in-no-fault-constructions In above site, it has written about the "accusative pronoun":
example: Se me cayó.
This element "me" is used to "accuse" somebody of being "guilty" of that.
another examples:
Se me cayó el libro.
Se te perdió la mochicla.
Now see what is written in another site about "Se with Unplanned Occurrences" or "The accidental reflexive construction": http://www.elearnspanishlanguage.com/grammar/verb/accidentalreflexive.html
The accidental reflexive construction indicates that the action was unintentional. In addition, because the subject is only referred to by an indirect object pronoun, this construction gives the sense that the subject is not to blame - he or she had nothing to do with the accident.
examples:
Se le cayó la pluma.
¿Se te perdieron las llaves?
Now I confused which is correct? According to first site information I understood that Indirect object pronoun is used to "accuse" somebody of being "guilty" of doing action. So I conclude the action of that one is intentionally and not accidentally. According to second site the action is done accidentally. which one is correct? Maybe,I should say indirect object pronoun in passive se construction indicates somebody that is guilty of doing an action accidentally???
1 Answer
The difference is quite simply that the blame is laid on the object, rather than the person who drops things, forgets things, leaves things behind. It's the things that are to blame. I don't thhink you need to think of it a ' accusative', just learn those few constructions that take this form. Olvidarse is the most useful, instead of saying I forgot my driving license you say - The driving-licence forgot itself( from me).
Se me olvidó el carnet de conducir. This is a very common form that you will hear all the time!
But if you're stopped by the police it might be better to take full responsibility for this offence and say ; Lo siento, olvidé el carnet de conducir en casa. In this case you're stressing that you yourself have made a mistake.
