Lesson 38: When 'le' and 'les' become 'se'
We've seen how 'lo' becomes 'le' in certain situations to show the difference between 'he' and 'him'. Now we'll see how 'le' becomes 'se' to move from 'him' to 'himself'
A quick Recap
So we have seen that 'me', 'te' and ;nos' can have lots of different meanings:
- 'me' - me, to me, for me, myself
- 'te' - you, to you, for you, yourself
- 'nos' - us, to us, for us, ourselves
But when we talk about "he" and "him", "she" and "her", "they" and "them" there are differences as there are in English:
- 'él' - he
- 'lo' - him
- 'le' - to him (or her)
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Él ve | He sees |
| Lo veo | I see it him |
| Le he hablado | I have spoken to him |
And we get a similar pattern for "her"
- 'ella' - he
- 'la' - her
- 'le' - to her (or him)
And for "they" (here using the masculine form):
- 'ellos' - them
- 'Los' - them (males)
- 'les' - to them (males and females)
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Ellos me ven | They see me |
| Los veo | I see them (group of males/mixed or masculine/mixed things) |
| Les han hablado | They have spoken to them / you guys |
Tú and Te recap
And just a quick reminder on this. 'Tú' does mean "you" as well but if you would say the same sentence using "him" you would use 'te' - something we don't change in English:
- "You see me"
- "I see you"
- "He see me"
- "I see him"
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Tú ves | You (informal) see |
| Te quiero | I love you |
Think about the he/him forms in English:
- "He sees"
- "I love him"
So if in English the "He" would change to "him" then in Spanish the 'Tú' would change to 'te'.
That's very slow to think through at first but its important to do in order to always get it right. Over time as your brain rewires to get familiar with this thinking it will get faster and faster at doing it.
Him and Himself
What we haven't covered is "himself", "herself" and "themselves". Again, remember we already have this covered for "me", "you" and "us" because they never change. 'te' can mean "you" (when you would use "him" in the same sentence to talk about a person"), "yourself" or to "you".
So the good news here is that "himself", "herself" and "themselves" all become the same word - 'se'!
So:
- 'Lo' and 'la' became 'le' to say "him" or "her"
- 'Los' and 'las' became 'les' to say "them"
Now:
- 'Le' becomes 'se' to say "himself" or "herself"
- 'Les' becomes 'se' to say "themselves"
The easy way to remember this is that "se" is the first two letters of "selves".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me hablo | I speak to myself |
| Se habla | He/she speaks to himself/herself |
Now of course with 'se' meaning so many different things you might need to clarify who you are talking about if there is no context!
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Él se habla | He speaks to himself |
| Ella se habla | She speaks to herself |
| Se hablan | They speak to themselves |
Them, themselves and They
So if we remember the "to" rule we know to use 'les':
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Les hablan | They speak to them |
Quedar recap
Now you'll remember that Spanish has a lot of "reflexive" verbs. We sort of do this sometimes in English - "I'll sit myself down" = when we only need to say "I'll sit".
In Spanish explaining who the action is being done to is far more common and we saw this earlier with the verb 'Quedar':
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me quedo | I stay (myself) |
| Nos quedamos | We stay (ourselves) |
| Te quedas | You stay (yourself) |
| ¿Te quedas? | Are you staying? |
| ¿No te quedas? | Aren't you staying? |
| ¿Por qué no te quedas? | Why aren't you staying? |
Although it is mostly obvious from the form the verb and the use of 'me', 'te' and 'nos' who is doing the staying we can add the actual words for "I", "you" and "we" to emphasise the point:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Yo me quedo | I stay (myself) |
| Nosotros nos quedamos | We stay (ourselves) |
| Nosotras nos quedamos | We (all female group) stay (ourselves) |
| Tú te quedas | You stay (yourself) |
But we only covered I, you and us. Now we can go further and use "himself" and "themselves":
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Se queda | He/she stays (himself/herself) |
| Se quedan | They stay (themselves) |
Putting it all together
OK - lets consider these responsive verbs with other elements of Spanish we've already learnt.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Quiero quedarme | I want to stay |
Remember that 'me' either belongs "before the changed verb or after the unchanged verb (if one exists)" which is why it has moved to the end in this sentence. A to form of a verb exists in the sentence.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Quiere quedarse | He/She/you (formal) wants to stay |
| Ella quiere quedarse | She wants to stay (emphasising 'she') |
| Quieren quedarse | They / you guys want to stay |
| Ellas quieren quedarse | They (female group) want to stay |
| Ustedes quieren quedarse | You guys want to stay |
Now if you dabble in a dictionary you will find 'quedarse' translated to "to stay" but no mention of the other endings like 'quedarme' but the dictionary is only giving out a single form in the same way as we would say in English "one stays" ... if one was of Royal Blood :)
But the dictionary is a handy place to go because if you see an entry for 'quedar' (and you will) and next to it an entry for 'quedarse' you know you are dealing with a reflexive verb.
To realize - recap
In the last lesson we looked at how the Spanish verb "to realize" actually means to make something happen - to realize a project - but to say "I realize" as in "I understand" they say "I give myself account".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me doy cuenta | I realize |
| Te das cuenta | You realize |
| ¿Te das cuenta? | Do you realize? |
| Nos damos cuenta | We realize |
So let's just expand that with what we have covered here:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Se da cuenta | She realizes |
| Ella se da cuenta | She realizes (emphasising she) |
| No se dan cuenta | They don't realize |
| No se dan cuenta | You guys don't realize |