Breakdown of Se nos rompió el jarrón enorme que compramos.
comprar
to buy
que
that / than
nos
to us
romper
to break
Questions & Answers about Se nos rompió el jarrón enorme que compramos.
Why does this say se nos rompió instead of just rompimos for "we broke"?
Using se plus an indirect object pronoun (nos) and a verb in the third person (rompió) is a common way to express accidents in Spanish. It literally translates to "the vase broke itself to us." This "accidental se" construction removes direct blame, showing it was a mishap rather than a deliberate action.
Why is the verb rompió in the "it" form if the English translation says "we broke"?
In this accidental construction, the broken object (el jarrón) acts as the grammatical subject of the sentence, not "we." Because el jarrón is singular, the verb must be the singular rompió. If you had accidentally broken multiple vases, the verb would change to match the plural subject: Se nos rompieron los jarrones.
Does enorme have to go after jarrón here?
Yes, almost always. In Spanish, descriptive adjectives that help distinguish an object from others (like its size, color, or condition) generally go after the noun. Placing enorme after jarrón clearly specifies exactly which vase broke: the huge one, rather than a different one.
Wait, doesn't compramos mean "we buy" in the present tense?
It does, but it also means "we bought" in the past! For regular verbs ending in "-ar" and "-ir", the "we" form is spelled and pronounced exactly the same in both the present tense and the preterite (simple past) tense. Here, the context makes it clear you are talking about a completed action in the past.