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The accidental 'se' for unintended events

Have you ever accidentally dropped your phone or forgotten your keys? In English, we take the blame for these mistakes. We say "I dropped it" or "I forgot them", using an active sentence structure with ourselves as the main subject. Spanish has a clever way of avoiding this blame.

For unintended events, Spanish uses a special structure often called the accidental se. This phrasing makes it sound like the object acted on its own, completely by accident, and you were simply the victim of the situation. Common verbs like caerse and olvidarse use this pattern all the time.

Word list
acabarseA2 to come to an end se me acabó = I ran out of it caerseA2 to fall se me cayó = I dropped it olvidarseA2 to forget se me olvidó = I forgot olvidarseA2 to leave se me olvidaron las llaves en casa = I left my keys at home apagarseB1 to go out se me apagó = it died / turned off on me cerrarseB1 to close se me cerró la puerta = the door shut on me pararseB1 to stop se me paró el coche = my car stalled on me quemarseB1 to burn se me quemó = I burned it romperseB1 to break se me rompió = I broke it averiarseB2 to break down se me averió el coche = my car broke down descomponerseB2 to break down se me descompuso el coche = my car broke down (Latin America) echarse a perderB2 to spoil se me echó a perder la leche = my milk went bad enfriarseB2 to get cold se me enfrió el café = my coffee got cold on me estropearseB2 to break down se me estropeó = my machine broke down estropearseB2 to spoil se me estropeó la fruta = my fruit went bad perderseB2 to get lost se me perdió = I lost it romperseB2 to break down se me rompió la lavadora = my washing machine broke down
How the structure works

Instead of saying that you performed the action, you phrase the sentence so that the action happened to you. The structure starts with the pronoun se, followed by an indirect object pronoun like me, te, or le to indicate who was affected. Then comes the verb, and finally the object that caused the trouble.

Because the object is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence, the verb must match it in singular or plural. The conjugation does not depend on the person who experienced the accident. Notice how the verb is plural in the following example because "las llaves" is plural.

¡Ay, se me cayeron las llaves!
(Oh, I dropped the keys!)
Classic accidents: Forgetting, losing, and breaking

Let us look at some of the most common verbs used in this structure. Forgetting things is famously covered by olvidarse. When a thought completely slips your mind, the accidental structure is the most natural choice.

Lo siento, se me olvidó tu nombre.
(I am sorry, I forgot your name.)

Losing items works exactly the same way using perderse. Instead of admitting that you lost the ticket, you say the ticket lost itself to you.

Se le perdió el billete de tren.
(He lost his train ticket.)

Breaking things involves verbs like romperse or estropearse. If a glass slips from your hands, this structure clears your name.

Se nos rompió el vaso de cristal.
(We broke the glass cup.)
Running out and powering down

This structure is not just for dropping or breaking physical objects. It is also perfect for situations where something runs out, stops working unexpectedly, or goes wrong in the kitchen.

You can use acabarse when you run out of milk, money, or time. To a Spanish speaker, the time finishes itself on you.

Se me acabó el tiempo durante el examen.
(I ran out of time during the exam.)

If your phone dies because the battery runs out unexpectedly, you can use apagarse.

De repente se me apagó el teléfono.
(My phone suddenly died on me.)

And if you are cooking and accidentally burn the food, quemarse takes the blame away from your culinary skills.

¡Se te quemó la comida otra vez!
(You burned the food again!)
Summary

When you want to describe an accident, an honest mistake, or a sudden malfunction, remember the accidental se. By combining se, an indirect object pronoun, and a verb conjugated to match the object rather than the person, you can sound perfectly natural and completely innocent.