what is se like?

Question

El vino ya se me había subido a la cabeza.

Above sentence is "The wine makes me drunk" in English equivalent ? Then I thought "El vino ya me había subido a la cabeza" is also correct.

What is "se" for in above sentence?

Welcome to SpanishDict. We ask that all new members complete their profiles with their native language, and what level of Spanish you feel you are, like, beginner, intermediate, etc. as well as gender. - rac1, Oct 13, 2016

"Such as " would be a lot more elegant than "like" beginner, intermediate. Like makes you sound about 14 years old. - Doffer, Oct 13, 2016

Answer 1

Sometimes subir and subirse seem to me to be a bit interchangeable, but I think I have always seen it in the sense of go to one’s head with the pronominal forms. What I don’t know for sure is a native speaker would accept it without that or not. In many cases the use of the pronominal (se) is a very subtle emphasis of meaning. Sort of it took itself to your head in a sense.

El vino ya se me había subido a la cabeza. The wine had already gone to my head.

se me había subido a la cabeza- sort of literally- itself on me had gone to the head.

http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/subir

Subirse

PRONOMINAL VERB

5 (to get conceited)

a. to go to somebody's head

Que no se te suban esos halagos a la cabeza.Don't let that flattery go to your head.

6 (to get drunk)

a. to go to somebody's head

Teniendo en cuenta que soy muy bajito, la cerveza se me subió muy rápido.Considering that I'm pretty small, the beer went to my head pretty fast.

Buenísimo! - Daniela2041, Oct 13, 2016

Gracias, Daniela. :) - bosquederoble, Oct 13, 2016