In this lesson we will study something that is useful but not often taught in Spanish classes. I am talking about how to use “se” in the Spanish language, especially how to use what is known as “se involuntario”. Native Spanish speakers often use this construction to indicate that an action or result was unintentional or even accidental.

In this case “se” is used to express that someone has no responsibility for a result. In this case, the “Se” is used before the verb and the verb is conjugated according to the object in question. Please note that these translations are not literal, but rather what each person would likely say in English and Spanish.

Example: “The television fell”, “The whole house was dirty”, “The cups were broken”.

This “Se” allows me to say or pretend that I don’t know who did it or how it happened. If instead we want to prove that I was responsible, but was not “voluntary” about what happened, I use an Indirect Object (Me, te, le, nos, les) between the “Se” and the verb.

Situation 1: Let’s say I was trying to open the front door of the house, but I did it with too much force and broke part of the key. In Spanish, to indicate that I broke the key, but it was not voluntary, you could say: “Se me roto.” This is an involuntary action, unlike “I broke the key”.

Situation 2: Let’s say you’re eating pasta, but when you bring your fork to your mouth to take a bite, you spill some pasta sauce on your shirt and make a mess. I could tell you: “Your shirt got dirty.” In English, there isn’t really a direct translation for this to indicate that the person did something by accident or unintentionally. It is more in the tone of our voice in English. Just know that in Spanish, “You got your shirt dirty” would be different than saying, “You got your shirt dirty!” (“You soiled your shirt!”), which would mean that you soiled your shirt on purpose and with intent.

Now let’s learn some vocabulary words that you can use to show whether something is voluntary or not.

Volunteer: “On purpose”, “on purpose”, “wanting”

Involuntary: “Inadvertently”, “I didn’t realize”

For additional practice, I recommend that you read Dorothy Richmond’s Spanish learning books that are available on Amazon.com. If conjugating the numerous tenses of Spanish verbs is one of your problem areas, you may want to follow the advice I’ve given to some of my private students. and invest in Verbarrator software, which also helps reduce your American or native English speaking accent when speaking the Spanish language.