Trouble with pronouns

Question

I am getting confused with pronouns.

Can anyone please tell me why it is;

"Se está tomando su medicina con una taza de agua"

and not

"Está tomando......."

or

"Ella está......."

The question really is regarding the difference between tomar and tomarse, which is a little too subtle for me to expound on. - bosquederoble, Dec 9, 2014

Está tomando in my opinion works, but se adds a subtle shade of meaning that is still a bit beyond me. - bosquederoble, Dec 9, 2014

Okay I found a useful link that indicates that in this case they would essentially mean the same, see my answer. - bosquederoble, Dec 9, 2014

Answer 1

Literally it means: "She is taking the medicine herself with a cup of water."

LIke before she may have been too weak to do it. ----Just a thought.

Sort of like, "I'm having me a glass of rum." ;-) - Winkfish, Dec 9, 2014

That's it! Thank you Wink! - Daniela2041, Dec 9, 2014

Answer 2

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=3473

The post from Tormenta is the one discussing this.

Basically it says tomar and tomarse are often interchangeable and in this case would be, but if you are taking your (body) temperature for instance you have to use tomarse. So you can say "se está tomando" or "está tomando" and mean the same thing.

You do not need ella unless it is necessary to make it clear- if it is clear from context, no ella, if not clear for context and using ella will make it clear (say you were talking about two people one male, one female, and it is not clear from the context who this sentence is) then use ella. This will not happen very often, normally it is clear, or you need to use something other than a pronoun.

Thankyou for your replies - Sandi_e, Dec 11, 2014