Meaning and grammatical explanation

mwtzzz · #1 September 30, 2015, 12:27 PM

Today I heard the following in a song:
"Se me arrancó la esperanza".

I'm not sure if this means "you gave me hope" or "you ripped/removed the hope from me". So that's my first question.

Second question is to analyze the grammar and help me understand it. If I understand correctly, "esperanza" is the object (what's being uprooted). Using the "se" means it's a passive action: the hope is being uprooted, but we dont' know "who" is doing the uprooting. It simply happened. And the "me" is the indirect object: the hope is being uprooted "in me".

If this is a correct analysis, then can we say something like this:

"Se les arrancaron los sueños" to mean "Their dreams were uprooted" ?

**AngelicaDeAlquezar** · #2 September 30, 2015, 12:36 PM

You understand right.

"Se me arrancó" doesn't mention a specific person who took hope from me (or dreams from them), but I have been deprived of it (as "they" in your example were deprived of dreams).

mwtzzz · #3 September 30, 2015, 12:46 PM

Okay, so it means deprived of.
Cool, thanks!

**AngelicaDeAlquezar** · #4 September 30, 2015, 01:07 PM

Yes, it's taken away with violence.

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Meaning and grammatical explanation

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