Accidental se

Level 3

To talk about a mishap without presenting anyone as the doer, make the thing the subject and add se plus the person as an indirect pronoun: Esquecéuseme o paraugas (I forgot my umbrella), Acabáronselle os cartos (he ran out of money).

How It Works

The pattern. se + indirect pronoun + verb + thing:

  • Esquecéuseme o paraugas. (I forgot my umbrella. / My umbrella slipped my mind.)
  • Perdéuselle a carteira. (She lost her wallet.)
  • Acabóusenos o leite. (We ran out of milk.)

What agrees with what. The thing is the grammatical subject, so the verb agrees with it: Acabóuselle o diñeiro, but Acabáronselle os cartos. The person is shown by the indirect pronoun. To name the person as well, add a: A Xoán perdéronselle as chaves.

Order and spelling. Se always comes first: se + me, se + lle. After the verb, everything is written as one word and accented as one word, which is why esqueceu becomes esquecéuseme (see enclisis). A trigger such as non pulls both pronouns in front: Non se me ocorre nada (I cannot think of anything).

What it adds. Compare Esquecín o paraugas (I forgot the umbrella), which presents you as the doer, with Esquecéuseme o paraugas, which presents the forgetting as something that happened to you. Verbs often used this way: esquecer, perder, acabar, queimar, ocorrer.

Caer and romper: no se. These two verbs never take se in standard Galician (see pronominal and non-pronominal verbs). For an accident with them, show the person with the indirect pronoun alone: Rompeume o vaso (my glass broke), Caéronlle os papeis (he dropped the papers), Caeume o vaso e rompeu. The Real Academia Galega dictionary has Co vento rompeume o paraugas.

Without se. Some of the other verbs also work with only the indirect pronoun: the dictionary gives Esqueceulle o meu número de teléfono, and a dialect survey records both esquecéuseme and esqueceume.

Examples (6)

  1. Caeume o vaso e rompeu.

    I dropped the glass and it broke.

    Word by Word: Fell-to-me the glass and broke.

    Caer and romper take no se, so only the indirect pronoun me shows who it happened to.

  2. A Xoán perdéronselle as chaves.

    Xoán lost his keys.

    Word by Word: To Xoán lost-themselves-to-him the keys.

    Perdéronselle is plural because it agrees with as chaves.

  3. Esquecéuseme o paraugas na casa.

    I left my umbrella at home by mistake.

    Word by Word: Forgot-itself-to-me the umbrella in-the house.

  4. Queimóuseme o arroz.

    I burned the rice.

    Word by Word: Burned-itself-to-me the rice.

  5. Acabóusenos o leite.

    We ran out of milk.

    Word by Word: Finished-itself-to-us the milk.

  6. Non se me ocorre nada.

    I can't think of anything.

    Word by Word: Not itself to-me occurs nothing.

Common Mistakes

  • Leaving the verb singular when the thing is plural.

    Perdéuselle as chaves.
    Perdéronselle as chaves.

    As chaves is the subject, so the verb is plural. The pronoun lle only tells you who lost them.

  • Starting the sentence with the pronouns, as in Spanish.

    Se me esqueceu o paraugas.
    Esquecéuseme o paraugas.

    A Galician sentence cannot begin with an unstressed pronoun. With no trigger word in front, the pronouns follow the verb and join it.

  • Adding se to caer, as in Spanish.

    Caéuseme o vaso.
    Caeume o vaso.

    Caer never takes se in standard Galician. The indirect pronoun me alone shows who dropped it.

How It Connects

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Accidental seLevel 3

Learn This First

Accidental constructions distinguish the affected person from the thing undergoing change.

Words in This Pattern