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Old February 14, 2010, 02:14 PM
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Question Pronominal verbs...

I receive a couple of different "word of the day" e-mails to increase my Spanish vocabulary. The most recent one used the word "burlarse", and said that it is a "pronomial verb", meaning that it takes a reflexive pronoun, right? The definition of the word (in English) is given as "to mock, to flout, to ridicule". They also give a couple of example sentences:
- Mi hermano burlarse de las leyes.
- Muchos niños se burlan de los niños diferentes.

My questions:
1) In the first example, why is the verb not conjugated? Why isn't it: Mi hermano se burla de las leyes.
2) What is the pronoun supposed to be representing? It would seem to me that with this particular verb, the pronoun should represent the object of the joking. Or does it HAVE to agree with the subject? It's not apparent in either example, which both use third person. For example:

Which is correct?
- Tú se burlas de los niños diferentes.
OR
- Tú te burlas de los niños diferentes.


Which is correct?
- Yo se burlo de las leyes.
OR
- Yo me burlo de las leyes.
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Específicamente quiero recibir ayuda con el español de latinoamerica. ¡Muchísimas gracias!
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