Help me with the "se" in this sentence

Question

"Me acabo de dar cuenta de que se nos acabaron los huevos."

Why is the "se" in there? I'm assuming it's a reflexive, but I can't figure out why because it doesn't seem like the action of "running out" is happening to themselves...

Can anyone clear this up for me? Thanks!!

Answer 1

This is what is called in my textbook, Panorama, the "se" for use in unexpected occurences.

Se me perdieron las llaves. My keys got lost. ( they lost themselves to me)

"Se nos acabaron los huevos" "the eggs finished them selves on us" which sounds ridiculous. In English we would say "We ran out of eggs" Which sounds a little ridiculous from my Spanish point of view. ( Who ran? the eggs or us?)

Aren't languages fun? It's always the little common expression we use that really mess the learner up.

Sometimes you just have to learn the expressions and "Poll parrot" them.

The template if you want to use this expression is:

Start with "se"

Se +inderect obj pronoun (me, te, le nos, les) plus verb (usually in the preterite.)

Ex.

"Se me olvidó el nombre del tercer presidente". " The name of the third president slipped my mind." (to avoid admitting " I forgot the name of the 3rd president)

"¿Se te cayó la taza de café?" "Did the cup of coffee slip out of your hand?" (to avoid saying, " Did you drop the cup of coffee?) There are many more of these. The template works.

Answer 2

se nos acabaron los huevos

The se here is not pronominal nor reflexive. The nos indicates pronominal (who is affected by the action).

As Daniela said, the se indicates unexpected or sudden action. We could just as easily talk about loosing keys or running out of eggs without se - although it would be uncommon - but without se in these cases there would be no nuance of unexpected/sudden action, which would be an unnatural event.

Answer 3

I think it is basically saying that the eggs have run out. But it is adding emphasis by saying (literal translation) the eggs have run out on us... ie - we have run out of eggs.

Reflexive is a greatly over used but misunderstood term. This is not reflexive it is pronominal use of acabarse.

we have run out of eggs, correct. The thing is to translate correctly, to English, in order to understand what's being said in Spanish. You don't need to "understand" what that "se" is doing there in order translate correctly to English. See? - chileno, Jan 7, 2015

Answer 4

Some Spanish verbs are simply always reflexive. Verdad?