Breakdown of ¿Por qué se vienen rompiendo las masas de hielo?
de
from / of
las
the (feminine plural)
por qué
why
venir
to come
romper
to break
el hielo
the ice
se
(impersonal) one / passive marker
la masa
the mass
Questions & Answers about ¿Por qué se vienen rompiendo las masas de hielo?
Why does the sentence use vienen rompiendo instead of han estado rompiendo?
Using venir plus a gerund like rompiendo (breaking) is a special way to talk about an action that started in the past and has been accumulating or continuing up to right now. While you could say han estado rompiendo, using vienen rompiendo emphasizes the progressive build-up of the ice breaking over a period of time.
Where does the se in se vienen rompiendo come from?
Could I attach the se to the end of the gerund instead?
Yes! With continuous verb phrases like this, pronouns can either go before the conjugated verb or attached to the end of the gerund. You could say vienen rompiéndose and it would mean exactly the same thing. Notice that if you attach it to the end, you have to add an accent mark over the e in -iéndose to keep the pronunciation stress in the right place.
Why is the subject las masas de hielo placed at the very end of the sentence?
In Spanish questions, it is very common to invert the word order and put the subject after the verb, especially when a question word like ¿Por qué? starts the sentence. You could technically put the subject before the verb, but putting the verb phrase first sounds much more natural to native speakers.
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