ELONIO
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Incluso al acróbata se le olvidó el truco.

Incluso al acróbata se le olvidó el truco.
Even the acrobat forgot the trick.
From Lesson 269:Adverbs of inclusion (incluso, hasta)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Incluso al acróbata se le olvidó el truco.

Can I use hasta instead of incluso in this sentence?
Yes! Both incluso and hasta mean "even" and can be used interchangeably here to show surprise or include something unexpected. Saying Hasta al acróbata se le olvidó el truco would mean the exact same thing.
Why is it al acróbata instead of just el acróbata?
Because in this specific Spanish sentence structure, the acrobat isn't actually the subject of the sentence. The trick is the subject. The acrobat is the person affected by the action (the indirect object), so we must put an a before it. The preposition a plus the article el combines to form al.
Why do we say se le olvidó instead of just olvidó?
This uses the "accidental se" structure, which Spanish speakers often use to show that an action was unintentional. Literally, it translates to something like "the trick forgot itself to him." The se shows it was an accident, and the le points back to the acrobat as the person it happened to, taking the direct blame off of him.
If the acrobat forgot the trick, why doesn't the verb agree with him? What if he forgot two tricks?
In this accidental structure, the thing that was forgotten (el truco) is the grammatical subject, so the verb must match it. Because there is one trick, we use the singular olvidó. If he had forgotten multiple tricks, the verb would become plural: Incluso al acróbata se le olvidaron los trucos.

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