Learn Spanish (Latin America): Él se iba a quemar la lengua con la sopa. - He was going to burn his tongue with the soup.

Él se iba a quemar la lengua con la sopa.

He was going to burn his tongue with the soup.

Breakdown of Él se iba a quemar la lengua con la sopa.

Questions & Answers about Él se iba a quemar la lengua con la sopa.

How does iba a quemar show an unfulfilled past action in this sentence?

The imperfect of ir + a + infinitive (iba a quemar) is the standard way to say someone "was going to" do something in the past. In this context, it heavily implies he was on the verge of burning his tongue, but ultimately didn't (perhaps someone warned him or he blew on the soup first).

Why is the reflexive pronoun se used here instead of just saying él iba a quemar?

When an action affects a person's own body, Spanish uses a reflexive verb (in this case, quemarse). Without se, the sentence would sound incomplete, as if he were going to burn something else rather than himself.

Could the se be attached to the end of quemar instead of going before iba?

Yes. When you have a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive, you can place the object pronoun before the conjugated verb (se iba a quemar) or attach it directly to the end of the infinitive (iba a quemarse). Both options are extremely common and mean the exact same thing.

Why does the sentence say la lengua (the tongue) instead of su lengua (his tongue)?