Accidental SE help

Question

I have to translate these 5 sentences using accidental se

1) She left the keys in the car.

2) They broke the plato.

3) I lost my book.

4) We left grandma behind in the house.

5) The car broke down on us.

MY ATTEMPT:

1) Se le dejó las llaves en el coche.

2) Se les rompieron el plato.

3) Se me perdí mi libro.

4) Se nos dejamos a la abuela en la casa.

5) Se le el choche se durrumbó sobre nosotros.

Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Apr 21, 2017

Answer 1

I had never heard nothing about the "accidental se".

This is my attempt:

1) Se le olvidaron las llaves en el coche.

2) Se les rompió el plato.

3) Se me perdió el libro.

4) Se nos olvidó la abuela en la casa.

5) Se nos descompuso el choche.

@Ken: I agree with you!

Luis: I think it is a term that native English teachers of Spanish use to explain this type of Spanish construction - DilKen, Apr 21, 2017

By accidental, they mean it was not done on purpose. If it was done on purpose the phrasing would be different. In English, the word "forgot" already implies that it wasn't done on purpose. - DilKen, Apr 21, 2017

For a plate breaking, we would just the "the plate broke" instead of saying "I broke the plate" if we want to remove a little of our responsibilidad :) - DilKen, Apr 21, 2017

I could be wrong, but I think from a Spanish Grammar point of view it is just Se passive, or reflexive passive + a dative of interest pronoun for the person affected by the passive action - DilKen, Apr 21, 2017

Luis is a native Spanish speaker. - rac1, Apr 21, 2017

I asked a question about the "accidental" se a while back which Daniela answered, and it is used as Ken suggests with the passive construction deferring the blame. I might post the conversation as an answer because I found it informative. - jellonz, Apr 21, 2017

By the way Luis, no double negative here in English: I have never heard *anything*. - jellonz, Apr 21, 2017

Answer 2

MY ATTEMPT:

In 4 out of five you are using the English subject, not the pronominal Spanish subject.

1) Se le dejó las llaves en el coche. SE le dejaron las llaves en el coche. Subject the keys- the keys were left in the car on me.

2) Se les rompieron el plato. Se les rompió el plato. Same issue.

3) Se me perdí mi libro. Se me perdió mi libro. Same issue.

4) Se nos dejamos a la abuela en la casa. Se nos dejó la abuela en la casa. Same issue, no personal a as la abuela it the subject. I don’t honestly know if it is more natural with or without la in front of abuela.

5) Se le el choche se durrumbó sobre nosotros. Weird attempt that doesn’t match what you put before.

I would say se nos descompuso el coche.

I am a learner, no guarantee my answers are correct, but I think they at least are better.

Oh, I see Luis was answering at the same time as me- looks like we essentially did the same, except he switched dejar to olvidar in both cases. :) - bosquederoble, Apr 21, 2017

I do not know how I ended up with capitals at the start and for one se. :( - bosquederoble, Apr 21, 2017

Answer 3

This is not specifically related to your question but it is a conversation about how the accidental "se" uses the passive construction to defer blame, and how deliberate actions would not use this construction:

Accidental vs deliberate action structure.

Me: I was wondering if Spanish regularly differentiates between deliberate actions and accidental by use of the "accidental" se. For example, if we said "I dropped the ball" in English it could refer to an accidental or deliberate action. However, I assume that in Spanish there would be a difference:

Se me cayó la bola (accidental)

Dejé caer la bola (deliberate)

Is this correct/common?

Daniela: Both are correct. "Se me cayó" is more common because we don't want to take the blame for some actions.

Me: Thanks Dani. So if for example the action was both deliberate and good (eg dropping the ball in a hole wins a prize) then you would use "Dejé caer"?

Daniela: Absolutely.

I remember learning about this and the teacher talking about shifting responsibility. UK I've lost my keys Spanish the keys are lost - Mardle, Apr 22, 2017

Yep Mardle. A cultural difference as much as a linguistic one perhaps. I know my wife's keys are always getting themselves lost :) - jellonz, Apr 22, 2017