“Se me cayó”: the plate fell, and it happened to me
CEFR B2 · part 2
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
“Quería que vinieras”: the tense drags the mood with itMatching the subjunctive to the main verb: present with present (“quiero que vengas”)…“Sin embargo”, “por tanto”, “en cambio”The connectors that hold an argument together, and what each one promises: “sin…“Serán las tres”: a future that is not about the futureUsing the future for a guess about now (“serán las tres”, “estará en casa”) and the…“Fue construido” or “estaba construido”Telling the action apart from the state it leaves behind: “la puerta fue cerrada a las…“Un momentito”: the diminutive is not about sizeWhat “-ito” really adds: affection (“abuelita”), politeness (“un momentito”), softening…“Acabar de”, “acabar con”, “acabar por”Verbs whose meaning changes entirely with the preposition: “acabar de/con/por”, “dar…The rule, in three lines
For something that happened to you rather than something you did, Spanish builds se + the person it happened to + a verb that agrees with the THING: se me cayó el vaso, se me olvidaron las llaves, se nos ha roto la tele.
The usual slip. Making the verb agree with the person instead of the object: se me cayeron el vaso.
Why it catches you out. English puts you in charge of your own accidents — “I dropped it”, “I forgot the keys” — so you stay the subject and the verb follows you. Spanish takes you out of the driving seat: the thing becomes the grammatical subject and drags the verb with it, and you are left as the person it happened to. Nothing in your language prepares you to make a verb agree with a plate.