PSG 9 - Grammar IIb - Accidental & Unplanned Occurrences in Spanish

Practical Spanish Grammar pg 155

I divided this grammar lesson into two parts because I need to study them separately. The first part is PSG 9 - Grammar IIa - Indirect Object Pronoun Verbs like Gustar. As I was putting this post together I realized how the two are related.

When talking about an action that is or was not planned, especially if it was unwanted or was unpleasant, the reflexive pronoun se is used (similar to how we use Se habla español) followed by an indirect object pronoun, 3rd person verb, and then the sentence subject. This construction is for things that “just happen”, such as forgetting, falling, dropping, and breaking.

So instead of saying, “I dropped her teapot!”, even in English we may say “The teapot slipped out of my hands!” According to Dr. Lemon’s Grammar Notes:

The difference in the second sentences is an emphasis on the lack of intent or responsibility. We are stressing that this was a totally unexpected event that did not involve any deliberate action on our part. In Spanish we use Se with certain verbs reflexively to convey this idea. We conjugate them in the third person singular or plural - much like Gustar type verbs - since we aren’t actually doing the action: Rather, it is something happening to us.

This construction indicates that the action was unintentional and, since the ‘actor’ is only referenced by an indirect object pronoun, this construction gives the sense that the ‘actor’ is not to blame - he or she had nothing to do with the accident.

Se le cayó la pluma. would mean: He dropped the pen (The pen got dropped by him).
Without the indirect object pronoun,
Se cayó la pluma. would mean: The pen fell.

I also note that from all the examples in PSG and online it appears that the peterite tense is used most all the time for this construction.