Question about word of the day example

Question

Hola a todos. Here is the example sentence:

Luz María siente tanto agobio en el trabajo que a veces le dan ganas de llorar.

Luz Maria feels so much stress at work that she sometimes feels like crying.

I have two questions, why is it not Luz Marie se siente? I am still so confused with when to use "se"

And why is it "le dan" ganas de llorar? Is it "dan" because it is referring to various people at her work causing the stress not the work itself where it would be "da"? And why "le"?

Muchísimas gracias!

Answer 1

sentir in Spanish is a transitive verb and needs an object. If you want to phrase it like Luz María se siente... a preposition is needed: Luz María se siente con tanto agobio en el trabajo...

Also, le is used because you're referring to her, if it's not there, the meaning of the utterance changes:

• ... a veces dan ganas de llorar. (= ¿a quién le dan ganas? ¿a ella, a él, a ti o a mí?)
• ... a veces le dan ganas de llorar. (= a ella.)

Answer 2

Thank you for your answer. Do "le" "se" etc have a name... is this one topic that I can look up to try and understand it. I have never studied Spanish and don't know names of grammatical terms etc.

http://www.spanishdict.com/learn/courses Free lessons. - rac1, Sep 14, 2016