Me lo va a espantar

Question

I've been reading "El Solitario en Octubre", a play by Emilio Carballido, and there is a sentence that I cannot figure out.

An old woman in a park is trying to coax a stray dog to come take some food from herself. A man approaches and says something to the dog. The old woman says, angrily: "Me lo va a espantar, no lo llame usted". The last part is "don't call it", but I can't understand the first part. What does the word "Me" indicate?

Excellent question! Curiously, the literal translation of "me lo va a espantar" in my own native language makes *perfect* sense and yet I have no idea how to explain the difference with and without the 'me'. Ha. :-) - Manity, May 11, 2015

My guess would be "on me" in the somewhat slangy sense- You are going to scare it (away) on me- or something like that- the away is not in there, but I can't write the English without it or it sounds funny. :) - bosquederoble, May 11, 2015

Nice question. - annierats, May 11, 2015

Welcome to SpanishDict. Please add your language proficiency to your profile. - rac1, May 11, 2015

Answer 1

Annie is right. Of course the dog is the one that will be frightened, it´s the direct object. By adding Me, we know that the speaker will also be affected by the action of frightening the dog.

Using an additional personal pronoun unrelated to a direct object is a common sentence structure to show the (additional) affect of the action.

Thanks, just what was needed, an explanation. - annierats, May 11, 2015

Answer 2

I would translate it as:

You're going to frighten it ( away) from me. Don't shout at it// call it.

I leave it to other, more grammatically minded people to explain the structure.

Bingo! - Daniela2041, May 11, 2015