use of impersonal "se"

Question

What's the small, nuanced difference in meaning (and context) between these two sentences:

1. se me olvida tomar fotos
2. olvido tomar fotos

(Please explain in terms of a context. Muchas gracias!)

Answer 1

Se me olvidó tomar fotos - You are not taking responsiblity/ blame for actions. Not your fault. Something else caused you to forget to take the photos like maybe someone called you and ou got distracted so it was the person-who-called-you's fault.

Olvidé tomar fotos- You are taking the blame and admitting it was your fault.

I forgot to take photos. It's past tense so use the past tense of olvidar. The preterite not imperfect.

Agreed, the first can also be interpreted as the nuance of more it slipped your mind. But it is more it happened to/on you than you did it. :) - bosquederoble, Jun 14, 2016

American politicians often use an English version of this usage: "Mistakes were made." Never "I made mistakes." - Jubilado, Jun 15, 2016

Thanks! but why not "se me olvida tomar fotos"? my friend from Chile wrote this to me. - sunflowerhk, Jun 15, 2016

Sorry for the late response!! Olvida is present tense for olvidar meaning forget, not forgot - Ramonaspiker, Jun 16, 2016

Also "fotos" is plural so you have use the ellos, ellas form of the verb. Olvidan- forget. Olvidaron- forgot - Ramonaspiker, Jun 16, 2016

Answer 2

To expand on Ramonaspiker's explanation a bit, the "se" in your sentence is what's difficult for us english speakers to understand. There are many ways "se" is used but here it refers to a change in state; in other words something "got" that way: "se me olvidó" - it got forgotten on me" or in the example you gave, it should be "se me olvidaron" - they got forgotten on me. This type of "se" construction is sometimes called "se process". And the "me" simply refers to who was affected by this "change in state". I know this is more than what you were asking but many of us have difficulty with this type of "se".

...for us "English" speakers to understand. Good explanation. - Jubilado, Jun 15, 2016

I like that you add the "process" explanation to it. this is very helpful! Helps reinforce my understanding :) - sunflowerhk, Jun 15, 2016