Verbos reflexivos “accidentales” Courtesy of: www.123teachme.com

We know how to form a sentence expressing intentional action. José Luis rompió su juguete. José Luis broke his toy.

To express unintentional action we say: A José Luis se le rompió el juguete. José Luis accidentally broke his toy. José Luis’ toy accidentally broke.

Literally: José Luis’ toy broke itself to him

A mí se me rompieron las botellas. I accidentally broke the bottles. My bottles accidentally broke.

Similar to gustar verbs The verb conjugates to the thing affected The IO pronoun agrees with the person

A ti se te rompieron los vasos. You accidentally broke the drinking glasses. Your drinking glasses accidentally broke. A mí se me rompió el vaso. I accidentally broke the drinking glass. My drinking glass accidentally broke.

The following common verbs express accidental or unplanned occurrences. In each case, the verb is used reflexively and an indirect object (IO) indicates the “victim” of the “accident.”

acabarse (to run out of) Se me acabó la gasolina. I ran out of gas.

caerse (to fall; to drop) Se me cayeron los platos. I accidentally dropped the dishes.

dañarse (to damage; to break down) Se les dañó la computadora. They accidentally damaged the computer.

ocurrirse (to occur) Se me ocurrió una gran idea. A great idea occurred to me.

perderse (to lose (an object) Se le perdieron las llaves. He lost his keys.

olvidarse (to forget; to slip one’s mind) Se nos olvidó la tarea. We forgot our homework. The homework slipped our mind.

quedarse (to be left behind) Se me quedó la cartera en casa. I accidentally left my wallet at home.

romperse (to break) Se te rompieron los lentes. You accidentally broke your glasses.

to run out of acabarse to fall, to drop caerse to damage, break down dañarse to occur ocurrirse to lose perderse to forget olvidarse to be left behind quedarse to break romperse