Word
Ustedes se pusieron a burlarse del mago.
Meaning
You started to make fun of the magician.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ustedes se pusieron a burlarse del mago.
ustedes
you (plural)
ponerse a
to start to
el mago
the magician
burlarse de
to make fun of
Questions & Answers about Ustedes se pusieron a burlarse del mago.
Why are there two instances of se in this sentence?
Both verbs in this sentence are pronominal (meaning they require a reflexive pronoun). The first se belongs to ponerse (conjugated here as se pusieron), and the second se is attached to the infinitive burlarse (to make fun of).
Since poner means "to put," why does this translate to "started"?
When you use the reflexive verb ponerse followed by the preposition a and an infinitive, it changes meaning entirely. The structure ponerse a + infinitive is a very common way to express "to start" or "to set about" doing an action.
The subject is "you," so why are the pronouns se instead of te?
The subject is Ustedes (the plural "you" in Latin America). Even though it means "you," ustedes grammatically acts as a third-person plural subject. Therefore, it requires the third-person reflexive pronoun se, not the second-person singular te.
Could I move the second se to the front of the sentence?