se me hace...Why se?

Question

The example for the Word of the Day (Las cerezas se ven tan jugosas que se me hace agua la boca), made me wonder what the difference would be if the sentence was, instead, Las cerezas se ven tan jugosas que me hace agua la boca.
Can you write it that way? Is there a difference?

Answer 1

If we miss out words - especially really fundamental ones like 'se' which has so many different meanings and uses in Spanish, then it's difficult to say whether a sentence would make any sense at all. It's exactly the same in English.

For example:

The sentence, "It makes my mouth water"

If we take away the 'it'.... "makes my mouth water". That makes no sense. What makes your mouth water?

If we take out the 'my'.... "it makes mouth water". Again, that makes no sense. Who's mouth?

So taking away the 'se' in sentences such as this renders the sentence meaningless. I'll have a stab at what it would mean without the 'se', but I could be wrong!

Se me hace agua la boca = It makes my mouth water.

Me hace agua la boca = The mouth makes me water.

great explanation. thank you very much. That is what I needed. - RolloMartins, Jul 28, 2017

Hacerse is one of those change verbs the mouth it becomes water to me - sounds better in Spanish! - Mardle, Jul 28, 2017

Answer 2

Hi again, rollo.

Well, both verbs need se.

hacerse la boca agua

verse bien, mal , regular...

I think I understand verse, but not the other. When I write "que me hace agua la boca" I read it as "It makes to me the mouth water." Adding "se" doesn't add anything (to me). Is there a way to explain this? - RolloMartins, Jul 28, 2017

I now see billygoat's explanation: thank you. - RolloMartins, Jul 28, 2017

Answer 3

Impossible without SE.

First of all it's a fixed expression.

Se me hace agua la boca. Se te hace agua la boca. Se le hace agua la boca. Se nos hace agua la boca. Se les hace agua la boca.