Rusty

[tacuba]

Originally Posted by silopanna

Diamond,

This structure that you used seems so strange to me:

"Se me ha olvidado mucho de mi español."

The part in in parentheses is unusual for me:

Se me "ha" olvidado de "mi" español.

Why not change ha to he: "he olvidado de mi Español."???

Dean

This is a very common construction in Spanish. Literally translated you could say "My spanish has forgotten itself to me". It doesn't translate well, does it?

The "me" in the sentence is the object in the sentence, not the subject. Similar to the "me" in "me gusta comer in ese restaurante". "Eating in that restaurant is pleasing to me". Again, the "me" is the object. It would normally be translated as "I like eating in that restaurant."

Another example: "Se me cayeron los vasos." "The glasses dropped themselves to me." Or, in everyday English "I dropped the glasses."

It doesn't seem very intuitive for an English speaker, but after awhile when you hear phrases like this you stop translating them and they become second nature.

BTW, you can say something like "yo no me olvido de mis amigos" where the "me" is used reflexively, not as the object and it's a perfectly grammatical sentence.

[silopanna]

Tacuba,

Your answer was right on the money, the issue is very clear now in my mind.

Thanks a lot!

Silopanna

[tacuba]

Originally Posted by silopanna

Tacuba,

Your answer was right on the money, the issue is very clear now in my mind.

Thanks a lot!

Silopanna

De nada.