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Se iba acercando

 

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  #1  
Old November 20, 2020, 10:26 AM
Tyrn Tyrn is offline
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Se iba acercando

Hi,

This means He/it was getting closer. However, the idea of irse is leaving, getting out of here, etc. Am I missing something?
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  #2  
Old November 20, 2020, 11:52 AM
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AngelicaDeAlquezar AngelicaDeAlquezar is online now
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"Ir" + verb ending with "ando"/"-iendo" means to do something progressively over time.
Sometimes you can use the verb "estar" instead, but with "ir" the idea of time going by is stronger, I think.


- El río se va/está secando poco a poco. -> The river is drying out.
- Es triste ver cómo el abuelo se ha ido/estado deteriorando con la enfermedad. -> It's sad to see grandfather wearing down because of his sickness.
- Iremos considerando todas las propuestas. -> We'll consider each and every proposal as we receive them.
- Mis joyas fueron desapareciendo con los años. Mis sobrinos se las robaron. -> My jewels slowly disappeared over the years. My nieces and nephews stole them from me.


In imperative form, it means to start doing something:
- Ve preparando la comida, que las visitas ya van a llegar. -> Start fixing food; the guests are almost here.
- Vayan lavando la ropa y mientras limpio la casa. -> Start doing the laundry and I'll clean the house in the meantime.
- Vaya abriendo la puerta, yo guardo el coche. -> Go open the door, I'll put the car in the garage.




And the best sentence in Spanish ever:
- Me voy a ir yendo. -> It must be something like "I'm getting ready to start to be leaving". It's a colloquial way to say we're leaving a place, like at the end of a party, to avoid abruptly saying "ya me voy".
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  #3  
Old November 20, 2020, 11:59 AM
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Rusty Rusty is offline
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The pronoun se actually accompanies acercar, not ir.

acercarse = to get close

The same thing can be seen in a few of Angelica's sentences (see the meanings of the pronominal verbs secarse and deteriorarse).

Last edited by Rusty; November 20, 2020 at 12:14 PM. Reason: augmented to show examples of other pronominal verbs
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Old November 20, 2020, 12:34 PM
Tyrn Tyrn is offline
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Thanks! I suspected something like that from the beginning, but ContextReverso grouped se iba together, while giving the correct translation
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Old November 20, 2020, 08:31 PM
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I agree with Rusty. I forgot about the "se" in the answer.
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