Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Spanish (Latin America)

### Accidental and involuntary events

In English, when you drop a glass or shrink a sweater, you usually say "I dropped the glass" or "I shrank the sweater." In Spanish, phrasing it this way sounds like you did it on purpose!

To express that an event was an accident or out of your control, Spanish uses a specific formula:

**se + indirect object pronoun + verb**

Here is how each part works together:
- **se**: Signals that the event was unplanned (often called the "accidental se").
- **indirect object pronoun**: Uses **me**, **te**, **le**, **nos**, or **les** to indicate *who* was affected by the accident.
- **verb**: Conjugated to match the *thing* involved in the accident, not the person. Because of this, the verb is almost always in the third-person singular or plural.

{{item:794484}}

{{item:794485}}

Notice how the literal translation of these sentences is closer to "the shirt shrank itself to me" or "the sweater shrank itself to you."

This structure is extremely common for recounting everyday mishaps, like appliances breaking down or things getting ruined.

{{item:794487}}

{{item:794490}}

When you are talking about dropping, knocking over, splashing, or damaging something, you will rely heavily on this structure. In the English translations, you will often see "I dropped" or "He knocked over," but remember that Spanish avoids placing direct blame for the accident.

{{item:794493}}

{{item:794496}}

{{item:794500}}

{{item:794506}}

Accidental events (se me, se te...)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

expression

interjection

noun

numeral

prep

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Subject pronouns and the verb to be (yo soy)

Noun gender and definite articles (el, la)

Basic sentences and negation (no)

Indefinite articles (un, una)

Formal and informal you (tú vs. usted)

Plural pronouns and the verb to be (somos, son)

Making nouns plural (-s, -es)

Plural articles (los, las, unos, unas)

Noun gender exceptions

Adjective agreement

Invariable adjectives

State and location (estar)

Ser vs. estar

There is / there are (hay)

Hay vs. estar

To have (tener)

Possession (de)

Possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su)

Regular -ar verbs

Yes/No questions

What and who (qué, quién)

Regular -er verbs

Regular -ir verbs

Asking where (dónde, adónde)

How, when, and why (cómo, cuándo, por qué)

How much and how many (cuánto)

Days of the week

Going to a place (ir a)

Preposition contractions (al, del)

In and by (en)

With me and with you (conmigo, contigo)

Prepositional pronouns (mí, ti)

Conjunctions (y, o, pero)

Giving reasons (porque)

Stem-changing verbs (e to ie)

Stem-changing verbs (o to ue)

Stem-changing verbs (e to i)

Irregular yo forms (hago, salgo)

To know (saber vs. conocer)

Weather expressions (hace, está)

Desires and plans (querer)

Ability and requests (poder)

Obligations (tener que)

Expressing likes (me gusta)

Plural likes (me gustan)

Verbs like gustar (encantar, doler)

Very vs. a lot (muy, mucho)

Numbers 0 to 15 (cero, uno, dos…)

Numbers 16 to 31 (dieciséis, veinte…)

Numbers 30 to 1000 (treinta, cien, mil)

Months of the year (enero, febrero, marzo)

Seasons and dates (el dos de mayo)

Telling time (es la..., son las...)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primero, segundo, tercero)

Reflexive pronouns and verbs (me, te, se, nos)

Direct object pronouns (lo, la, los, las)

The near future (ir a)

The present continuous (estar + -ando, -iendo)

Near demonstrative adjectives (este, esta, estos, estas)

Medium demonstrative adjectives (ese, esa, esos, esas)

Comparatives of inequality (más / menos ... que)

Comparatives of equality (tan ... como)

Indefinite and negative pronouns (algo, nada, alguien, nadie)

Affirmative commands

Far demonstratives (aquel, aquella)

Possessive pronouns (el mío, el tuyo)

Shortened indefinite adjectives (algún, ningún)

Adverbs of quantity (demasiado, bastante)

Adverbs of frequency (a menudo, a veces)

Adverb formation (-mente)

Exclamations (¡Qué...!)

Irregular comparatives (mejor, peor, mayor, menor)

Relative superlatives (el más... de)

Adjective intensification (-ísimo)

Indirect object pronouns

Pronoun placement with infinitives

Double object pronouns (me lo, te la)

The 'se lo' rule (se lo, se la)

Impersonal statements (se)

Impersonal obligation (hay que)

Personal obligation (deber)

Starting actions (empezar a)

Finishing and quitting actions (terminar de, dejar de)

Repeating actions (volver a)

Continuing actions (seguir + gerundio)

Question	Answer
to shrink	encoger
the dryer	la secadora
Since it is made of cotton, my shirt shrank in the dryer.	Ya que es de algodón, se me encogió la camisa en la secadora.
Given that you used hot water, your sweater shrank.	Dado que usaste agua caliente, se te encogió el suéter.
to ruin (spoil, damage)	estropear
Our dryer broke down and the clothes are wet.	Se nos estropeó la secadora y la ropa está mojada.
Since you did not read the label, your dress got ruined.	Puesto que no leíste la etiqueta, se te estropeó el vestido.
to wrinkle	arrugar
His pants got wrinkled when he sat on top of the bed.	Se le arrugó el pantalón al sentarse encima de la cama.
the iron	la plancha
Our skirt got wrinkled because we did not use the iron.	Se nos arrugó la falda porque no usamos la plancha.
I dropped the iron on the floor and it broke.	Se me cayó la plancha al piso y se rompió.
to unstitch	descoser
the zipper	el cierre
The zipper of my new coat came unstitched.	Se me descosió el cierre del abrigo nuevo.
Upon trying to open the jacket, his zipper broke.	Al intentar abrir la chaqueta, se le rompió el cierre.
My pants pocket came unstitched yesterday.	Se me descosió el bolsillo del pantalón ayer.
to knock over	volcar
He knocked over the glass of juice on top of the table.	Se le volcó el vaso de jugo encima de la mesa.
the detergent	el detergente
We knocked over the detergent next to the washing machine.	Se nos volcó el detergente al lado de la lavadora.
Since I knocked over the detergent, I have to buy more.	Ya que se me volcó el detergente, necesito comprar más.
to splash	salpicar
You accidentally splashed the sauce when cooking dinner.	Se te salpicó la salsa al cocinar la cena.
I accidentally splashed the oil in front of the stove.	Se me salpicó el aceite enfrente de la estufa.