se for unplanned

Before tackling this one, you should have a pretty good grasp of relexive verbs and indirect objects.

When something bad happens to you, isn't it nice to be able to blame somebody or something other than yourself? Spanish has provided us an elegant and acceptable way to do this in almost every occasion when you goof up.

Instead of saying: "I lost my keys." You use the reflexive verb, and let the keys lose themselves, with you as the victim. "Se me perdieron las llaves." Which make you feel somewhat better about it than if you had said: "Perdí mis llaves."

If you are driving at night in a romantically remote area, this one could come in handy: "Lo siento Cindy, pero se nos acabó la gasolina." (The gas ran out on us.)

Or, after particularly shameful afternoon at Buck Hill, you could explain the cast on your leg like this: "¿El enyesado? Se me quebró la pierna ayer." (The leg broke itself on me.) Which probably won't help your image, but it feels somewhat better than that kid on a snowboard that you plowed over.

There is a colorful verb that is used for forgetting things. It is the same root as the English word "obliterate." When you forget to send the check, you can tell them: "¿Dónde está el cheque? pues, er, uh, se me olvidó mandárselo. Voy a enviárselo mañana." (sending it to you obliterated itself in my memory.)

Similar to GUSTAR, this structure causes problems because the person appears only in the indirect object pronoun, and the reflexive pronoun SE is ALWAYS used in front. The verb ending is always in the third person singular or plural.

Se me cayeron los pantalones. (My pants fell down on me.) caersele = to drop

Se le cayó el vaso a Juliana. (Juliana dropped the glass.)

Parece que se te ha muerto tu mejor amigo. (It looks like your best friend died on you.) morirsele to die on somebody.

Sus padres se les murieron. Ahora son huérfanos. (Their parents died on them. Now they are orphans.)

This is a fun structure to learn and practice. Try it yourself.

Try to translate these. Do not use SER, ESTAR or TENER unless necessary. Avoid PONERSE to help you increase your vocabulary. Also try to include indirect object pronouns whenever possible, and the Se for unplanned occurrences.

	We fell asleep during the play.
	I get so angry when he talks.
	Eat your soup or it will get cold.
	He committed to doing it with us.
	Don't sit here. Sit over there.
	I'm cold. Let's go inside to warm up.
	These problems have been ignored for years.
	You can't get there from here.
	Don't worry about it. It will be taken care of.
	He would always complain about it until we told him to shut up.
	He'll get sick if you show it to him.
	I would have had more fun if they hadn't opposed turning the meeting into a party.
	He dropped the glass, and it broke.
	When I was young, I'd always lose my gloves, until my mother attached them to my coat.
	I've fallen, and I can't get up.
	How could you have forgotten the bullets? You can't have a revolution without bullets!
	That hadn't occurred to me before. Perhaps if we hadn't lost the money, we'd still be able to become politicians.
	I had hoped we wouldn't run out of gas before we fell in love.
	One doesn't say what one thinks in Minnesota. It's considered rude.