Al vs en el

Question

So I'm reading a book and one of the sentences is "Se cae al agua". I think the se cae refers to the main character who is a girl.

Does that mean in English "She falls into the water"? If so, why isn't it "Se cae en el agua"? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

¡Hola!

So I believe the principle here is that the preposition "a" refers to movement. There is a motion. So "Se cae al agua" literally means "She/he fell to the water." She/he was in a different area, but something happened that forced the person to move and land in the water.

"En" is roughly used to state that an object or the person is already in place. "Estoy en el cine" = "I'm at the movie theatre."

Ojalá esto te ayude.

Precisely. :) - bosquederoble, Jul 29, 2016

Gracias Carlos! - Ramonaspiker, Jul 30, 2016

Me ayudaste mucho! :) - Ramonaspiker, Jul 30, 2016

Answer 2

So, you both began your question or answer with 'so".

Stop it.

Yay!! - Daniela2041, Jul 29, 2016

I think this must be a new trendy English thing to say like "double down", which I still don´t completely understand - 005faa61, Jul 29, 2016

Hehe sorry! - Ramonaspiker, Jul 30, 2016

Answer 3

I agree completely with CarlosCalderón. If you say "Se cae en el agua", it means that she is already in the water and then suddenly she falls down, which might not have a lot of meaning since it´s diffecult to fall inside water.

wow. that is subtle. Thank you. - HerefordLighting, Jul 29, 2016

Thanks Julian! - Ramonaspiker, Jul 30, 2016