How to explain the se in “se te ha ocurrido”

Question

Hi everybody, I ve met an problem hard for me to understand. "cómo se te ha ocurrido pegar al niño" Here, why should it use se, it stands for? If I can say se ha ocurrido a ti(it happened to you)? Seems like "te" is the indirective objecte,right?

Answer 1

http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/occurir

Ocurrir is to happen

Ocurrirse is to come to mind. The use of se (pronominal use) just changes the meaning that way. From the dictionary link:

ocurrirse

PRONOMINAL VERB

1. (to come to mind)

a. to occur to Se me ocurre que nunca te felicité cuando te casaste.It occurs to me that I never congratulated you when you got married.

b. to have an idea Se le ocurrió vender en mercados locales.He had the idea of selling at local markets.

c. to think of ¿Se te ocurre un título para nuestro proyecto?Can you think of a title for our project?

x

cómo se te ha ocurrido pegar al niño

Sort of “how did it occur itself to you to hit the boy?” How did it happen itself in your mind to do so?

The subject/pronominal obect is pegar al niño (se refers to pegar al niño)- the verb that is conjugated, ha, is conjugated to this.

Te is the indirect object- who it happened to. You can add an “a ti” if you want, but that would only be for emphasis, and it emphatically cannot replace the “te”, it can only be used to clarify/emphasize it. And although something like "a Pedro" can clarify le, "a ti" really can only emphasize te.

Excellen answer. Pronomial usage did not even come to mind. Shame on me. - gringojrf, May 10, 2016

Awesome explanation. I made a mistake while reading the question so I answered incorrectly. However, my real answer would not be a great as this! - xTempestad, May 10, 2016

You know, if you said "that occurred to me yesterday" you could argue that it's not clear if it happened to you or you thought of it. But normally we switch to happen in English. That occurred yesterday, that happened to me yesterday. - bosquederoble, May 10, 2016

I think se accomplishes that distinction in Spanish. - bosquederoble, May 10, 2016

lets give bosquederoble a big hug - Dfntly, May 11, 2016

Answer 2

Entiendo? Muchas gracias todo el mundo!

Answer 3

If it helps you: How on earth did the idea of hitting the boy come into you mind//occur to you. Bosque's answer is really good.

Answer 4

[Deleted] Incorrect information on my part, I read the question as something entirely different. Sorry for the inconvenience

Sorry it repeated, I'm on my phone. - xTempestad, May 10, 2016

It happens to all of us. - gringojrf, May 10, 2016

I've done that too before. Without even having the excuse of being on a phone. :) - bosquederoble, May 10, 2016

Answer 5

See bosque's answer about pronomial occurise.

Answer 6

[Deleted] This post was a repeat of my previous answer, thank you for understanding!

The change from le to se only ocurs when the other pronoun is lo/la. So it is not applicable here. - gringojrf, May 10, 2016