Learn Spanish (Latin America): Hacía mucho viento y se le quebró el espejo. - It was very windy and he accidentally broke the mirror.

Hacía mucho viento y se le quebró el espejo.

It was very windy and he accidentally broke the mirror.

Breakdown of Hacía mucho viento y se le quebró el espejo.

Questions & Answers about Hacía mucho viento y se le quebró el espejo.

Why does the sentence use se le quebró instead of just él quebró?

This is the accidental se construction. In Spanish, if you drop, break, or lose something by accident, you don't usually say "I broke it" or "He broke it" because that sounds like it was done on purpose! Instead, you say the object broke "itself" to the person. So se le quebró el espejo acts like "the mirror broke itself to him".

Why is the verb quebró in the third-person singular (he/she/it) form?

Because in this accidental structure, the mirror (el espejo) is actually the subject of the sentence, not the person who broke it. Since there is only one mirror, we use the singular form quebró. If he had broken two mirrors, the verb would match them and become plural: se le quebraron los espejos.

Why do we use hacía (imperfect) here instead of hizo (preterite) for the weather?

We use the imperfect tense (hacía) because it sets the background scene for the story. It tells us what the ongoing conditions were like when the sudden main event happened. The sudden event is the mirror breaking, which uses the preterite quebró. Also, remember that Spanish uses the verb hacer (to do/make) for many weather expressions instead of the verb "to be".

Can I use se le rompió instead of se le quebró?