PDA

Meaning and grammatical explanation

View Full Version : Meaning and grammatical explanation


mwtzzz
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
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
September 30, 2015, 12:46 PM
Okay, so it means deprived of.
Cool, thanks!

AngelicaDeAlquezar
September 30, 2015, 01:07 PM
Yes, it's taken away with violence. :thinking: