Sentir with pronouns

Question

Pronoun placement is tricky to understand for me, so can someone explain to me if the "te" is placed correctly in these sentences and explain why or why not? Thank you!

1) Siento haber estado ignorándote.

2) Te siento haber estado ignorando.

3) Siento haberte estado ignorando.

To me, they all seem correct because they follow the rules of where to place pronouns (attached to present participle with accent, before conjugated verb, and attached to infinitive)

My second question is why is there a "se" in front of "siente"?

"Se siente tan bien sin trabajo por hacer"

It feels so good without work to do

I got this translation from google translate. Another question I have is why is it por instead of para hacer?

Answer 1

Hi,

Reflexive vs non-reflexive use of the verb sentir Your second question is best answered because the verb sentir is being used reflexively (sentirse), so the REFLEXIVE pronouns are put in front the conjugated verb sentir.

I feel = me siento

You feel = te sientes

He/She/It/Ud feel = se siente

We feel = nos sentimos

They feel = se sienten

So in your example, se siente means he/she/it feels.

We use the verb sentir reflexively like this to describe HOW we feel (following the conjugated verb with an adjective): I feel well = me siento bien.

In contrast, sentir can be used non-reflexively to describe WHAT we feel (following the conjugated verb with a noun): I feel the water = siento el agua.

Conjugation of present perfect tenses: In your first question, the examples use present perfect tense, so we must conjugate the verb haber:

So, if you are saying in (1): I feel I have been ignoring you = Me siento he estado ignorandote.

We could write (1) in a different way, by moving the subject (YOU): 1) I feel I have been ignoring you = Me siento te he estado ignorando.

Por vs Para: Last part: por vs para In answer to the question, por hacer is an example of using POR as in cause/action.

Hope that helps.

Please put you gender and proficiency in English and Spanish in your profile. We don't know a person's credentials (or credibility) unless he / she puts them in the profile. Thanks. - Jubilado, Jun 10, 2016

Wow thanks for the great answer! I understand the "Se siente" and por vs para, but I'm still confused about the present perfect tense and placement of "Te" - Ramonaspiker, Jun 10, 2016

I thought that verbs are used in their infinitive forms when placed directly behind a conjugated verb. - Ramonaspiker, Jun 10, 2016

Answer 2

The present perfect is a form of past tense: something has been completed. In Spanish, we have the indicative and subjunctive forms of the present perfect (presente perfecto).

In both of these, we use the conjuated form of the auxillary verb haber with the past participle:
[haber] + [past particple]

for example: [he, has, ha, hemos, han] + estado

In your example using sentirse (to feel, onself) the reflexive pronoun can be positioned in several places.

'I feel I have been ignoring you' can be written as: 1) Me siento he estado ignorandote 2) Me siento te he estado ignorando


The second question, regarding the use of infinitive verbs when following a conjugated verb, depends on the tense being used is present, for example:
I want to talk with you: Quiero hablar contigo.
I wanted to talk with you: Quería/Quise hablar contigo.
I have wanted to talk with you: He querido hablar contigo.

In the OP first question, the sentence used several verbs: sentirse, haber+estar and ignorar. The second verb cannot (haber+estar) cannot be used in its infinitive form: the present perfect tense requires that haber be conjugated with estar in its past participle form.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the great answers!!! Would you mind finding me a link that says that haber + past participle needs o be conjugated even after a conjugated verb? All the sites I have looked at says to use the infinitive perfect - Ramonaspiker, Jun 11, 2016

Needs to be conjugated* - Ramonaspiker, Jun 11, 2016