The Ethical Dative
In English, when a machine breaks or a plant dies, we sometimes add "on me" to show that we are emotionally affected by the unexpected event: "My car broke down on me."
In Spanish, this is called the ethical dative (dativo ético). You can express this emotional involvement or unexpected impact using the indirect object pronouns: me, te, le, nos, os, and les.
When gardening goes terribly wrong, you will often use pronominal verbs like marchitarse (to wither) or pudrirse (to rot). These verbs naturally use the pronoun se. The ethical dative pronoun is placed right between the se and the conjugated verb.
| The orchid has withered on me. | La orquídea se me ha marchitado. |
| It is logical that the delicate orchid rots on you. | Es lógico que se te pudra la orquídea delicada. |
A Shared Tragedy
This structure works for all persons. Whether a plant dies on us, on you (plural), or on them, the pronoun order remains exactly the same: se + ethical dative + verb.
| You should water more so that the fern doesn't wither on us. | Deberías regar más para que no se nos marchite el helecho. |
| The cactus is going to drown on you guys with the cold water. | Se os va a ahogar el cactus con el agua fría. |
| The orchids have rotted on them. | Se les han podrido las orquídeas. |
Happy Surprises
The ethical dative isn't only for tragedies! It also expresses the pleasant surprise of a plant thriving.
If the verb you are using is not pronominal—like brotar (to sprout)—you simply place the ethical dative directly before the verb. There is no se needed.
| A new leaf has sprouted for me on the fern! | ¡Me ha brotado una hoja nueva en el helecho! |
| In fact, many stems are sprouting for him today. | De hecho, hoy le están brotando muchos tallos. |