Lesson 47

Things Happening by Themselves

Language Transfer Complete Spanish is by Mihalis Eleftheriou. Listen to the original audio first; use these notes for revision.

New vocabulary

Spanish	English	Hook
la cena	dinner	—
cenar	to dine / have dinner	just add -r to cena
quemar	to burn	—
romper	to break	think "rupture"
el sol	the sun	—
todo el tiempo	all the time	—

When something happens by itself (no one doing it), use the reflexive: La cena se quemaba = The dinner was burning ("burning itself"). Word order is flexible: Se quemaba la cena means the same thing.

Me quemo en el sol = I get burnt in the sun ("I burn myself in the sun"). But El sol me quema = The sun burns me (no reflexive needed — the sun is doing the burning).

Se rompe todo el tiempo = It breaks all the time. Se rompen = They break.

This lesson also reviews demonstratives with new nouns: este coche, estos coches, esos autos.

Sentences practiced

Spanish	English
La cena.	The dinner.
Cenar.	To dine.
Cenaba.	I/he was having dinner.
Quemar.	To burn.
Quemaba la cena.	He was burning the dinner.
Él quemaba la cena.	He was burning the dinner. (emphatic subject)
Usted quemaba la cena.	You (formal) were burning the dinner.
La cena se quemaba.	The dinner was burning. (two word orders)
Se quemaba la cena.	The dinner was burning. (two word orders)
Me quemo en el sol.	I get burnt in the sun.
El sol me quema.	The sun burns me.
Rompo.	I break.
Lo rompo.	I break it.
Se rompe todo el tiempo.	It breaks all the time.
Se rompen todo el tiempo.	They break all the time.
Este auto.	This car.
Estos autos.	These cars.
El coche.	The car.
Este coche.	This car.
Los coches.	The cars.
Estos coches.	These cars.
Ese auto.	That car.
Esos autos.	Those cars.
Esos se rompen todo el tiempo.	Those ones break all the time.