congratulated themselves’ or ‘They congratulated one another’. To avoid
confusion, any of the following phrases or words may be added to a
reflexive verb: el uno al otro (literally: ‘one to the other’), (los) unos a (los)
otros (literally: ‘some to others’) or mutuamente‘mutually’:
Nos presentamos el uno al otro.
We introduced ourselves to each other.
Los jugadores se felicitaron unos a otros.
The players congratulated one another.Reflexives with an indirect object pronoun
A number of common verbs are frequently used reflexively in the 3rd
persontogether with an indirect object. This creates the pattern se + an
indirect object that corresponds to the English subject. It is often used for
unplanned or unexpected actions:
Se le cayeron las botellas que llevaba.
He dropped the bottles he was carrying.
Se nos ha agotado el aceite.
We’ve run out of oil.
Se me han perdido los guantes.
I’ve lost my gloves.Other verbs that can be used in this way include:
ocurrirse to occur to olvidarse to forget
romperse to break
The indirect object in this construction can also be used to refer to someone
who is an interested party in an event, without actually being the English
subject:Se le llenaron los ojos de lágrimas.
Her eyes filled with tears.
Se te ha subido la temperatura.
Your temperature has risen.
Note: This construction can be an alternative to the usual reflexive construction for
parts of the body discussed in 14.2(b). For example, ‘I have twisted my ankle’ could
be translated by either Me he torcido el tobillo, in which yo(not explicitly
mentioned) is the subject of the verb, or Se me ha torcido el tobillo, in which case
the subject of the verb is el tobillo.14.4
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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1011
1
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Reflexives
with an
indirect
object
pronoun