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-   -   "no se me olvida.." ? (http://forums.tomisimo.org/showthread.php?t=28116)

createdamadman August 05, 2022 09:17 PM

"no se me olvida.." ?
 
I have this sentence in a short story:

"Ése fue otro día que no se me olvida.."

I get that it basically means "That is another day I will not forget", but the "se me olvida" is really throwing me off. Even if "olvidarse" is used, I would expect "no me olvido" or "no me olvidaré" or something similar. I figure the "olvida" is conjugated for "día" but I still can't quite make sense of it gramatically.

Rusty August 06, 2022 05:27 AM

This is an example of the "no fault 'se'" (or "accidental 'se'") construction, used when talking about something that is not your fault, like when you drop a glass (se me cayó el vaso = I dropped the glass (by accident)).

It may seem strange to us English speakers, who always say "I dropped" or "I forgot," but to the Spanish speaker, forgetting or dropping something is never their fault. The blame is placed elsewhere (the pronoun 'se'). The 'me' part of the construction expresses whom (indirect object) was affected by the falling or forgetting.

The literal translations I see bandied about for the English-wired brain (like "It forgot itself on me" or "It dropped itself on me") don't make sense. So, my advice is to just learn how to use the "no fault" construction and never take blame for accidents or forgetting something when using Spanish.

createdamadman August 07, 2022 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusty (Post 185135)
This is an example of the "no fault 'se'" (or "accidental 'se'") construction, used when talking about something that is not your fault, like when you drop a glass (se me cayó el vaso = I dropped the glass (by accident)).

It may seem strange to us English speakers, who always say "I dropped" or "I forgot," but to the Spanish speaker, forgetting or dropping something is never their fault. The blame is placed elsewhere (the pronoun 'se'). The 'me' part of the construction expresses whom (indirect object) was affected by the falling or forgetting.

The literal translations I see bandied about for the English-wired brain (like "It forgot itself on me" or "It dropped itself on me") don't make sense. So, my advice is to just learn how to use the "no fault" construction and never take blame for accidents or forgetting something when using Spanish.

Okay thank you. I had actually learned of this construction a while back but this is the first time I've come across it and didn't catch it. There are actually instances where this sort of construction is used in English like "the glass went and fell on me", or in the case of my example, "this will not get lost on me", so this construction does make sense now that I understand it better. Thanks again

Rusty August 07, 2022 09:34 PM

You're welcome.


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