Pronominal verbs...

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by chileno

Grammatically? I do not know.

But consider this instead:

Me burlo de ti.

You cannot just say "burlo de ti"


Does it make sense?

It makes sense that you cannot say "burlo de ti".

Why the pronoun has to match the subject and not the object does not make sense to me. (As I stated in my original question.)

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

It makes sense that you cannot say "burlo de ti".

Why the pronoun has to match the subject and not the object does not make sense to me. (As I stated in my original question.)

The way I see it.

The action is coming from me to you. I am teasing you.

Me burlo de ti

What do you think of this?

Me burlo de la gente.

[Ambarina]

Like Irmamar said "burlar" can be pronominal or not.
El gato burló al perro - the cat outwit the dog.
El gato se burló del perro - the cat made fun of the dog.
Using the pronoun changes the meaning.

Ocupas mucho sitio - You take up a lot of space.
Te ocupas de tu hogar. - You take care of your house.

Los ingleses conducen por la izquierda - The English drive on the left
(Ellos) se conducen de manera impropia cuando han bebido demasiado - They behave badly when they've drunk too much.

[rvbigcat]

Hi everyone,

I teach Spanish in public school and I have always wondered about the mechanics of Burlarse De, and I have not come across a satisfactory explanation. But I have deviced an explanation myself.

I think that the verb comes from the same word as "Burlesque" which can be defined as a kind of crude or grotesque entertainment. Thus, I think the Spanish verb connotes one entertaining oneself at the expense of another person. Many are right to point out that the SE is not a ReFlexive Pronoun but an Indirect Object Pronoun, the one entertained by such humoristic action on another person.

What do you think of such reasoning?

[Ivy2937]

Originally Posted by laepelba

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.

Los verbos pronominales tienen por característica usar los pronombres átonos (me,te,se, nos, os) como morfema (marca, indice) sin función nominal pertenecen a la estructura morfológica de los verbos pronminales, burlarse, asustarse, dormirse, arrepentirse, marearase, cansarse, este 'se' pronombre átono no tiene ninguna función nominal de complemento directo, indirecto. No puedes decir yo arrepiento sino yo me arrepiento, los m'se' reflexivos y recíprocos el 'SE' tiene función nominal de CD and CI.
Los verbos átonos concuerdan con los pronombre sujetos así :

yo ......me
tú........te
él, ella, ello......se
nosotros .........nos

Uds and they......SE plural, ellos se burlan del bobito de la escuela, uds. (ustedes) América latina en vez de 'vos' uds. se burlan de ellos.