Breakdown of No deberías obsesionarte tanto; te dio por ayunar todo el día.
no
no, not
el día
the day
te
to you / you (direct object)
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
todo
all / everything
deber
must / should
tanto
as much / as many / so much
darle por
to take to (doing something)
ayunar
to fast
obsesionarse
to become obsessed
Questions & Answers about No deberías obsesionarte tanto; te dio por ayunar todo el día.
How does the phrase te dio por ayunar translate to "you've taken to fasting"?
The structure darle (a uno) por followed by an infinitive is used to describe a sudden, often unexplained or capricious whim to start doing something. Literally, it translates to something like "it gave you to fast." The verb dar is always conjugated in the third-person singular (here, the preterite dio), and the person having the whim is the indirect object (te).
Why is dio in the preterite tense if the English translation uses the present perfect ("you've taken to")?
Spanish uses the preterite dio here because the phrase focuses on the exact past moment when that sudden, capricious urge struck you. English often prefers the present perfect to emphasize that the new habit is still ongoing, but the Spanish expression emphasizes the sudden onset of the whim in the past.
Why do we need the -te at the end of obsesionarte?
The base verb obsesionar means to cause an obsession in someone else (e.g., a movie obsessing a fan). Because you are talking about the person becoming obsessed themselves, you must use the pronominal form obsesionarse. Since the subject is "you," we attach the matching pronoun -te directly to the infinitive.
Why isn't there a que after deberías, like there is with tienes que?
It is a common mix-up for English speakers! While tener requires que to mean "have to," the verb deber (meaning "should" or "must") connects directly to the following infinitive without any joining words. Therefore, it is simply deberías obsesionarte, just like you would say "you should obsess" in English without adding "to."
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