En cambio, se me da mal freír huevos con poco aceite por la mañana.

On the other hand, I am bad at frying eggs with little oil in the morning.

Breakdown of En cambio, se me da mal freír huevos con poco aceite por la mañana.

• yo: I
• la mañana: the morning
• con: with
• me: me
• poco: little
• .: period
• ,: comma
• por: in
• en cambio: on the other hand
• el huevo: the egg
• el aceite: the oil
• freír: to fry
• dársele mal: to be bad at

Questions & Answers about En cambio, se me da mal freír huevos con poco aceite por la mañana.

What does En cambio mean and how is it used?

En cambio is a linking expression that means “however / on the other hand / in contrast.”

You use it to contrast what you’re about to say with what was said just before. For example:

• Me gusta mucho cocinar. En cambio, se me da mal freír huevos.
  I really like cooking. However, I’m bad at frying eggs.

It usually comes at the beginning of the sentence, followed by a comma, just like “however” or “on the other hand” in English.

What does se me da mal mean, and what’s the idea behind it?

Se me da mal means “I’m bad at (doing something)” / “I’m not good at (something).”

Literally, it’s something like “it is given badly to me”, but you should treat it as a fixed expression that talks about skill or ability:

• Se me da mal freír huevos.
  I’m bad at frying eggs.

The pattern is:

• Se me da bien… = I’m good at…
• Se te da bien… = You’re good at…

• Se le da mal… = He/She is bad at…

• an activity (infinitive) or a noun:

• Se me da mal cocinar. (I’m bad at cooking.)
• Se le da bien el fútbol. (He/She is good at football.)

Why is se used in se me da mal? Could we drop it?

In this expression, se is part of the pronominal verb darse used in a special way to talk about how something “goes” for someone (their skill at it).

• darse bien/mal a alguien = to be easy/difficult for someone; to be good/bad at something.

The se cannot be dropped here.

Compare:

• Se me da mal freír huevos.
  (Correct idiomatic expression.)

• Me da mal freír huevos.
  (Sounds wrong; it doesn’t mean “I’m bad at frying eggs.”)

So think of se me da bien/mal + [activity] as a fixed structure.

What is the function of me in se me da mal?

Me is an indirect object pronoun meaning “to me / for me.”

The structure is:

• Se (part of darse)
• me = to me
• da = it goes / it is given
• mal = badly

So literally: “it goes badly to me” → I’m bad at it.

If you change me, you change the person:

• Se te da mal freír huevos. = You’re bad at frying eggs.
• Se nos da mal freír huevos. = We’re bad at frying eggs.

Saying Se da mal freír huevos without a pronoun would sound incomplete and unnatural, because you’re not saying for whom it goes badly.

What is the subject of se me da mal freír huevos con poco aceite por la mañana?

The subject is the activity itself, expressed by the infinitive phrase:

• freír huevos con poco aceite por la mañana

That whole action is treated as a singular subject, so the verb is in the 3rd person singular:

• Se me da mal freír huevos…
  (Frying eggs… goes badly for me.)

If the subject were a plural noun, the verb could agree in plural:

• Los idiomas se me dan mal.
  (Languages are hard for me / I’m bad at languages.)

Why is freír in the infinitive and not conjugated like frío?

After se me da bien/mal, you normally use the infinitive to talk about an activity in general:

• Se me da mal freír huevos.
  I’m bad at frying eggs.

Using frío would be a normal present tense verb (I fry), which doesn’t fit this structure:

• ✗ Se me da mal frío huevos. (incorrect)

So the pattern is:

• Se me da mal + infinitive
  Se me da bien + infinitive

Is freír irregular? How is it conjugated and pronounced?

Yes, freír is irregular and also has some spelling variations depending on the variety of Spanish. In Spain you will commonly see:

• yo frío
• tú fríes
• él/ella fríe
• nosotros freímos
• vosotros freís
• ellos/ellas fríen

Pronunciation:

• The í has the stress: [fre-ÍR], [FRÍ-o], [FRÍ-es], etc.
• The e of the stem changes to í in most forms: freír → frío, fríes, fríe…

But in our sentence we don’t conjugate it; we keep the infinitive freír.

Why is it huevos and not los huevos?

In Spanish, when you talk about an activity in general and you don’t mean specific, identified items, you often omit the article:

• freír huevos = frying eggs (in general, some eggs, not particular ones)

If you say freír los huevos, you’re referring to specific eggs already known in the context:

• Voy a freír los huevos que están en la sartén.
  I’m going to fry the eggs that are in the pan.

In the original sentence, we’re talking about the general skill of frying eggs, so no article is used.

What’s the nuance of con poco aceite versus con un poco de aceite or en poco aceite?

• con poco aceite = with little oil, i.e. not much oil at all.
  This emphasizes scarcity; maybe the speaker finds it hard to fry with so little oil.

• con un poco de aceite = with a bit of oil / with some oil.
  This sounds a bit more neutral or positive: there is some oil, just not a lot.

• en poco aceite is grammatically possible but sounds unusual here; con is the natural preposition for “with [a quantity of] oil” when cooking.

So con poco aceite focuses on the small amount as a difficulty: frying eggs when there’s very little oil.

Why is it por la mañana and not en la mañana or de la mañana?

In Spain:

• por la mañana is the standard way to say “in the morning” (as a general time period):

  • Por la mañana no desayuno.
    I don’t have breakfast in the morning.

• en la mañana meaning “in the morning” is much less common in Spain; it’s heard more in some parts of Latin America.

• de la mañana is usually used after a specific time, especially when telling the time:

  • Las ocho de la mañana.
    Eight in the morning.

So for a general routine or habit in Spain, por la mañana is the natural choice.

Could I say Soy malo friendo huevos con poco aceite por la mañana instead of Se me da mal freír huevos…?

You can say Soy malo friendo huevos con poco aceite por la mañana, and it would be understood. However:

• Se me da mal freír huevos… is more idiomatic and natural in everyday Spanish for talking about skill.
• Soy malo friendo huevos… is understandable but sounds a bit less typical; a more natural alternative with ser is:
  • Soy malo para freír huevos con poco aceite por la mañana.

So:

• Se me da mal freír huevos… = very common, sounds native, focuses on how that activity “goes” for you.
• Soy malo para freír huevos… = correct and also natural, but slightly different structure.

If you want to sound like a native in Spain, se me da mal is the best choice here.

Where can mal go in this sentence? Could I say Se me da freír huevos mal?

In this expression, mal is normally placed right after the verb da:

• Se me da mal freír huevos… ✅ (natural)

Putting mal somewhere else usually sounds wrong or at least strange in this particular idiom:

• ✗ Se me da freír huevos mal… (not idiomatic)
• ✗ Mal se me da freír huevos… (sounds odd here)

Treat se me da mal as a fixed block:
se me da mal + [activity / noun]

Is the word order flexible? Could I move parts of the sentence around?

There is some flexibility, but the most natural and neutral order is:

• En cambio, se me da mal freír huevos con poco aceite por la mañana.

You could move the time expression (por la mañana) to the front or nearer the start:

• Por la mañana, se me da mal freír huevos con poco aceite.
• En cambio, por la mañana se me da mal freír huevos con poco aceite.

These still sound natural and correct.

However, splitting se me da mal from the verb phrase or moving things in the middle can sound clumsy:

• ✗ En cambio, se me da mal por la mañana freír huevos con poco aceite.
  (Not wrong grammatically, but awkward and unnatural.)

So in practice, keep se me da mal + infinitive phrase together, and move por la mañana or en cambio as optional elements at the beginning or just after the comma.

How do I say the opposite: “I’m good at frying eggs with little oil in the morning”?

You simply swap mal for bien:

• En cambio, se me da bien freír huevos con poco aceite por la mañana.
  On the other hand, I’m good at frying eggs with little oil in the morning.

Same structure:

• Se me da bien + [activity] = I’m good at [activity].