Breakdown of Me da miedo disparar.
el miedo
the fear
dar
to give
me
to me / me (direct object)
disparar
to shoot
Questions & Answers about Me da miedo disparar.
How would I apply this lesson's topic and say "It would have scared me to shoot" using the conditional perfect?
I usually use tener miedo for being afraid. Why does this sentence use dar miedo?
You use tener miedo when you are the grammatical subject experiencing the fear (e.g., Tengo miedo de disparar - "I am afraid to shoot"). Dar miedo functions backward, exactly like the verb gustar. The thing causing the fear is the subject. Literally, this sentence translates to "Shooting gives me fear."
Why is the verb da conjugated in the third-person singular?
Because the grammatical subject of the sentence is the action of shooting (disparar). In Spanish, whenever an infinitive verb acts as the subject of a sentence, it takes a third-person singular verb. If a plural noun scared you instead of an action, the verb would become plural: Me dan miedo las arañas (Spiders scare me).
Since expressing fear triggers the subjunctive, why is disparar in the infinitive here?
We only use the subjunctive with emotion verbs when there is a change of subject between the person feeling the emotion and the person doing the action. Because you are the one feeling the fear and the one doing the shooting, you stick to the infinitive. If you were scared of someone else shooting, you would use que plus the subjunctive: Me da miedo que dispares (It scares me that you shoot).
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