Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ellas se pasan la tarde viendo una película, tumbadas en la cama. - They spend the afternoon watching a movie, lying down on the bed.

Ellas se pasan la tarde viendo una película, tumbadas en la cama.

They spend the afternoon watching a movie, lying down on the bed.

Breakdown of Ellas se pasan la tarde viendo una película, tumbadas en la cama.

to see / to look / appear

Questions & Answers about Ellas se pasan la tarde viendo una película, tumbadas en la cama.

Why is it se pasan here instead of just pasan?

While you can use pasar to mean "to spend time", adding the pronoun to make it pasarse adds emphasis. It implies spending the entire time doing something, often highlighting that it feels like a long time or is a bit excessive. Here, se pasan la tarde emphasizes that the whole afternoon was consumed by this single activity.

How does the pasarse + time + gerund structure work in this sentence?

This sentence uses the exact formula to express time-spending: the verb pasarse (conjugated as se pasan), followed by a time expression (la tarde), and directly followed by a gerund (viendo). Unlike English, which sometimes inserts prepositions like "by" or "in", Spanish strictly connects the time period directly to the gerund to show what action is consuming the time.

Why does tumbadas have a feminine plural ending, but viendo doesn't change?

Viendo is a gerund (a verb form ending in -ando or -iendo), and gerunds never change their endings to match gender or number. However, tumbadas is a past participle being used here as an adjective to describe the subjects (Ellas). Because Ellas is feminine plural, the adjective must agree with it.

Could I use acostadas instead of in this sentence?