Learn Spanish (Latin America): Su odio me da miedo.

Su odio me da miedo.

His hatred scares me.

Breakdown of Su odio me da miedo.

el miedo

the fear

his/her/its/their/your (formal)

Questions & Answers about Su odio me da miedo.

Why does this sentence use da for "scares"?

In Spanish, many emotional reactions are expressed by saying a subject "gives" you an emotion. The phrase dar miedo literally means "to give fear". So instead of using a single verb for "scares", this sentence literally translates to "His hatred gives fear to me."

Why do we use the pronoun me here instead of yo?

Because you are the recipient of the emotion, not the one performing the action. The word me is an indirect object pronoun meaning "to me." In the structure dar miedo, the thing causing the fear is the subject, and the person feeling the fear receives it as an indirect object.

Does the verb da match with me or with odio?

It matches with odio (hatred). Because "his hatred" is the subject doing the giving, the verb is conjugated in the third-person singular. If multiple things were scaring you, like his actions (sus acciones), the verb would change to plural: me dan miedo.

Su can mean a lot of things. Could this sentence also mean "Her hatred scares me"?

Yes! Su is a possessive adjective that can mean his, her, its, their, or your (formal). Without more context, this sentence could easily mean "Her hatred," "Their hatred," or "Your hatred." "His" is just the translation used for this specific example.