Se le fueron...

Question

I'm having a hard time figuring out what "se" means, in all it's different manifestation. Here is a phrase: "Todos se cansaron de sus desplantes y fanfarronadas, y se le fueron corriendo con el tiempo."

Regarding "... se le fueron corriendo...", "le" is an indirect object, but the indirect object always comes first, if I understand the rules. Also, the indirect object indicates "to" someone/something, or maybe "from".

Q1: Isn't "le" an indirect pronoun? Q2: Why is it following "se", rather than coming first? Q3: Am I trying to translate something that is not translatable? Q4: What does this phrase mean?

Grácias a todos.

Answer 1

"Todos se cansaron de sus desplantes y fanfarronadas, y se le fueron corriendo con el tiempo."

Everyone got tired of his rude remarks/insolence and boasts/bragging and they left (on him), running, with time. Essentially ...they all went running from him over time.

Irse- se fueron- they left. Todos. Order is RID- Reflexive pronominal/indirect/direct- se is pronominal, and always comes first. Se is pronominal and refers to the they that fueron is conjugated to, the same todos that cansaron is conjugated to, and the se there refers to.

I can explain the difference further between the pronominal (not truly reflexive) use of irse vs. ir, if you need. I am assuming since you didn't ask that you understood cansarse.

Le- him- the guy making the desplantes and fanfarronadas. They left “on” him. Sus before desplantes and fanfarrondas refers to this same le, not the todos= se= se. Le is singular. Se can be either, here it is plural.

(Todos) se fueron de "él" (por sus desplantes y fanfarronadas)- being converted to se le fueron.

This is how I would read it - wait for other opinions.

Nice explanation. "Le" in this case is an indirect object pronoun (person affected by the action), so it can be either "him" or "her" since this one sentence doesn´t say who - 005faa61, Jun 6, 2016

Oh yes, I guess that was sexist of me to assume the obnoxious loudmouth was male. :D - bosquederoble, Jun 6, 2016

You are probably right, ha ha.The comment was to note that because "le" here is an indirect object it can be either male or female, but for a direct object "le" can be only male - 005faa61, Jun 7, 2016

Yes, this answer makes sense to me, now that I realize that "se" is not a direct or indirect object, bu a reflexive pronoun. That possibility had not occurred to me before, and I don't recall ever reading anything about a reflexive pronoun , specifically. - AndaBien, Jun 8, 2016

Keep in mind all "reflexive" uses of se are not truly reflexive- ir is to go, irse to leave (to take yourself away if you have to make it reflexive I guess). :) - bosquederoble, Jun 8, 2016