Several different pronouns in one sentence [Archive] - Spanish language learning forums | Foros para el aprendizaje de inglés y español

AngelicaDeAlquezar

October 04, 2014, 05:19 PM

There are several uses of pronominal verbs, and having three different pronouns in one sentence is not everyday language, but these seem to be examples of the rule for ordering pronouns in a sentence: First "se", then those of the second person ("te"), then first person ("me"), then third person ("los").

In your examples, "me" is only inserted to make an emphasis on the action of the other persons, as if it were affecting the speaker directly. It's as if the others were doing something on purpose to affect the speaker. Like when in the movies someone is dying and the other person says "don't die on me", almost saying "you're dying to make me feel sorry" or something similar.
As this kind of construction is only used in very colloquial language, the pronominal particle can be omitted.

For the examples with the verb "comer", "te" and "se" are used also for reasons of emphasis. When the verb "comer" is "comerse", it usually implies a notion of "gobbling up".
Both sentences convey the meaning of trying to avoid the others from gobbling up the food, either without my permission or eating all up with some intention of affecting me negatively by doing that.

Because of the special meaning of these particles, it's not possible to make a translation of the grammatical structure, but rather on the way the same idea would be expressed in English.

No te me vayas.
-> Similar to "don't you leave me".
The meaning is I don't want you to leave and if you do, I take it as an offense.

No te me los comas.
-> Similar to "for my sake don't eat them".
The idea is that I don't want you to eat those things and if you do, I'll be upset.

Que no se me los coma.
-> Something like "don't let them eat them for my sake".
The command or the wish expresses that the other person must not eat those things or I will be negatively affected by it.

Now you may probably find some more suitable expressions in English than those I proposed.