Se lo come
I apologize for adding to the many questions on se and lo. Just when I think I understand this, I come across another example which puzzles me. Here:
"Mi dueño tiene una bola de queso sobre la mesa y se lo come con sus tacos." [This is from a children's story as spoken by a sheep to a wolf.]
Why "se lo come"? I assume it means "and he eats it with his tacos." I would have written it as this: "y lo come con sus tacos." That is, And it he eats with his tacos."
So why is "se" necessary here?
2 Answers
A link to an article by Gerald Erichsen, the part relevant to your question is at the end:
http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishvocabulary/a/comer.htm
Comer is a common Spanish verb "to eat" and has most of the meanings that the English verb has.
Most commonly, comermeans simply to consume food through the mouth:
• Me gusta comer pizza sin anchoas. I like to eat pizza without anchovies. • El comer es uno de los placeres de la vida. Eating is one of the pleasures of life. • Comieron en el aeropuerto de Lima antes de abordar el avión. They ate at the Lima airport before boarding the plane. • Leah come como un pajarito. Leah eats like a bird.
Sometimes, depending on the context, comer refers specifically to eating lunch or dinner.Desayunamos en casa y comemos en el camino. We're eating breakfast at home and eating lunch on the road.
Like "eat up," comer can be used colloquially to suggest immense pleasure: Mi abuela comió el libro.
My grandmother ate up the book.
Comer can be used figuratively to refer to corrosion, erosion or the "eating up" of something by natural processes. The translation varies with the context:
• El mar comió toda la arena. The sea washed away all the sand. • El ácido comió el concreto de la cisterna. The acid ate away at the tank's concrete. Similarly, the reflexive form comerse can be used in a variety of ways to indicate that something is "swallowed up" or otherwise consumed or missing: • ¿Cuántas páginas se comieron? How many pages were missing? • Parece que se comió la letra N. It looks like the letter N was omitted. • La inflación se come el ahorro de la gente. Inflation is eating up the people's savings.
The reflexive form is also sometimes used to add emphasis. In such a case, the difference between comer and comerse is roughly the difference between "to eat" and "to eat up."Los chicos se comieron todos los dulces. The boys ate up all the candy.
I might add that from my experience, if you totally consume something, it is more than adding emphasis, it is pretty much obligatory and expected.
Yo como manzanas. I eat apples
Yo me comí la manzana. I ate the apple (the entire thing, it is gone).
So maybe conceptually: he consumes it with his tacos.
...una bola de queso y se la come con...
He eats cheese with his tacos = el come queso con sus tacos
He eats his tacos with cheese = él se come sus tacos con queso.
Would this help any?
