Breakdown of Son las ocho y mi hermana se despierta.
ser
to be
y
and
la hermana
the sister
mi
my
ocho
eight
despertarse
to wake up
Questions & Answers about Son las ocho y mi hermana se despierta.
Why is there a se before despierta?
The verb here is despertarse (to wake up). It is a reflexive verb, meaning the action is something the subject does to themselves. Without the se, despierta would mean she is waking someone else up. The se shows she is waking herself up.
Can I attach the se to the end of the verb, like despiertase?
Not in this sentence! When a verb is conjugated to match a subject (like despierta matching mi hermana), the reflexive pronoun se must go directly before the verb. You only attach it to the end if the verb is in its unconjugated dictionary form, like despertarse.
The dictionary form is despertarse. Why is it spelled despierta here instead of desperta?
This is a stem-changing verb, often called a boot verb. In the present tense, the letter e in the middle changes to ie for most forms. Since the subject is mi hermana (she), the verb takes the stem-changed form despierta.
Why do we use the plural Son las to say "It is" when telling the time?
When telling time in Spanish, we treat the hours as plural things (think of it as "the eight hours"). Because of this, you use the plural verb son and the plural article las for any hour from two to twelve. You only use the singular Es la for one o'clock.
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