Pronouns - necessity/order

[lizaann]

Good afternoon. It has been a long time since I logged in and things have been going fairly well on Duolingo. I guessed the right answer to this question (Section 6, Unit 35) , however, I don't understand. I was sure that I had a handle on pronouns (necessity and order), but it looks to me as if there is one too many, here, although it must be right because there were two or three other questions with exactly the same construction. Can you please help me understand? I even tried Google Translate, where the pronoun situation is different.
Duolingo
It's a pity that he always burns the meat.
Es una pena que se le queme la carne.


Google translations (2)
Es una lástima que siempre queme la carne.
Es una lástima que siempre le queme la carne.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Que se le queme la carne" is a construction where "se" adds the idea that the fact that he can't cook meat is not his fault. We use this kind of sentences a lot, because we don't assume we do bad things on purpose.

- Se me olvidó apagar la luz. (I forgot to turn off the light.)
- Se me rompió la taza. (I broke the mug.)
- Se me descompuso la televisión. (I broke the TV.)
- Se me cayó el teléfono. (I dropped my phone.)
- Se me escapó el gato. (I was unable to stop the cat from going out of the house.)
- Siempre se me quema la carne. (I always burn the meat.)
-> In all these cases, the things "happen to me", because I didn't do anything on purpose.

When we use this kind of sentence with a "se" and an indirect object pronoun, the IO goes after "se".
- (A mí) nunca se me olvida llamar a mi mamá. (I never forget to call my mom.)
- ¿Ya se te perdió la gorra? (Did you lose your hat already?)
- Al niño se le fue el balón a la calle. (The kid let the ball fly across the street.)
- Aquí nunca se nos termina el café. (We never run out of coffee.)
- ¿A ustedes no se les acaba la batería del teléfono cuando juegan? (Doesn't your phone battery die down when you play?)
- No se les ocurrió llamarme antes de venir. (They didn't think of calling me before coming over.)

Since Duolingo seems to always prefer the more usual expressions, it's "natural" that they would choose "Es una pena que (siempre) se le queme la carne" instead of "Es una pena que siempre queme la carne". We would probably say "se le queme" to avoid blaming him and make him feel bad for his bad cooking skills.

As for Google translations:
"Es una lástima que siempre le queme la carne" is wrong. This sentence would mean that the meat burns him. Like when you eat something hot and you get burned.
- El café caliente me quema.

[Tyrn]

Ah, so who did what to whom isn't my personal disadvantage

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

It gets tricky even to native speakers, but it's a matter of practice and sometimes regional preferences.

[lizaann]

I hope this is not a duplicate. I had a glitch in our line-of-sight and had to retype.


Thank you for yet another very clear answer Angelica. I've read your answer three times. Excusing one's self is such a foreign concept to the Anglophone ear (grammatically speaking only), but I think I'm starting to get it. I accept no responsibility -- the cake burned itself, as did the toast.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Exactly. It's like saying: "The computer got broken"; it did it by itself, I didn't take part.

When I was in high school, once I forgot a book at home. I obviously went "Es que se me olvidó en la casa" (The thing is that I forgot it at home.)
Then my teacher said: "Entonces dijo 'yo me aquí me quedo', ¿verdad?" [So it (the book) said "I'm staying right here", right?]