Lesson 62: 'Gave' and why 'le' sometimes becomes 'se'

In this lesson we'll look at one really common verb 'to give' which is irregular in the past tense and why 'le' (him/her) can become 'se' and 'les' (them/you guys) can become 'se' as well.

The strange case of 'gave'

When changing verbs to be used in the past (the dot in the past - expressing a particular moment) we said, using the I form as an example:

For 'ar' verbs, we take off the 'ar' and add 'é'
For 'ir'/'er' verbs we take off the 'ir'/'er' and add 'í'

Spanish	English
Hablé	I spoke
Comí	I ate

'Dar' is an 'ar' verb so it should be 'Dé'but it actually swaps to the other verb group making it 'Di' - "I gave" (with a normal 'i' incase you are squinting!

Its the only verb that makes this jump and, if you have gone through the previous lessons you will recognise it from the "Melody" rule.

The "Melody" rule is a way to remember the order in which all the little words go before verbs' 'Me lo di' means "I gave it to myself" and because that sounds like the English word for "Melody" we can just remember that. We also said no good melody should be interrupted so this word order is never broken - if you want to say "I didn't give it to myself" the 'no' is going to have to go outside - 'No me lo di'.

So there's that 'Di' from 'dar'

Spanish	English
Di	I gave
Dió	He/she/it/you (formal) gave
Dimos	We gave
Me dio	He gave me
Me lo dio	He gave it to me
Nos lo dio	He gave it to us
No nos lo dio	He didn't give it to us
Te lo di	I gave it to you

When 'le' becomes 'se' and 'les' also becomes 'se'!

Previously we said that 'se' is used to refer to a 'self' situation for she/he/them/you guys - "He speaks to himself".

Spanish	English
Él se habla	He speaks to himself
Ella se habla	She speaks to herself
Se hablan	They speak to themselves

But when we are looking at all these little words that come before the verb there is one thing that Spanish does not like ... two little words that start with 'l' next to each other.

So for "I gave it to him" it should be 'Le lo di' but that would mean two 'l' starting words next to each other. To avoid this the first one of the little words becomes 'se'.

Spanish	English
Se lo di	I gave it to him
Se lo di	I gave it to you guys
Se lo di	I gave it to them
Se los di	I gave them to him

But that does mean that without a clear context it can be pretty hard to know what is being said - who are you giving things to?

To resolve this we do a bit of repetition - In Spanglish "Him something I gave to him" - in other words we are repeating the bit about who is getting something.

This addition to the end of the sentence can be used in every case where its not clear including when we use 'le'.

Spanish	English
Le di algo a él	I gave something to him
Le di algo a ella	I gave something to her
Le di algo a usted	I gave something to you (formal)
Se lo vendí a él	I sold it to him
Se lo vendí a ella	I sold it to her
Se los vendí a ella	I sold them to her
Se las vendí a ella	I sold them (feminine things) to her
Se las vendí a ellos	I sold them (feminine things) to them (mixed group)
Se lo envió a ella	He sent it to her
Se lo envió a ustedes	He sent it to you guys

But although that has cleared things up a little in this particular situation 'a' can also take on the meanings "for" and "from" ...

Spanish	English
Me lo compra a mi	He buys it for me
Me lo compra a mi	He buys it from me

In this case we would be better to use 'Me lo compra para mi' or just rely on the context to know what 'a' means.

But theoretically there is still room for confusion even with the addition to the sentence of 'a ella' or such like. With 'Se lo envió a ella' we know that "she" is receiving it but we don't know if the person sending it is he or she and sometimes that might be important.

We can get round this simply by adding the "who is doing it" to the start of the sentence.

Spanish	English
Él se lo envió a ella	He sent it to her

And then it almost sounds English because you are saying "He himself sent it to her" which is a structure you may well use, especially when emphasizing who was doing the sending.

OK lets finish off with something more juicy

Spanish	English
No se lo envió a ustedes todavía	He didn't send it to you guys yet
No se lo envió todavía a ustedes	He didn't send it to you guys yet
No se si se lo envíé	I don't know if I sent it to him

Remember repetition only works when 'a' is involved. With any other prepositions (with, on, etc.) we don't do the repetition.

Spanish	English
Lo compré para usted	I bought it for you (formal)
Lo compré para ti	I bought it for you (informal)

Now there was a lot to take on in this lesson but the key is not to try and memorise but to understand. If you understand what the patterns are then you will be able to put together any combination even if you have never seen or used that particular sentence before.

Lesson 63: To Remember and To Like