Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hi Inma,

The test questions given at the end of this section are as follows:

1.       ________ poner el despertador. He [accidentally] forgot to set the alarm clock.HINT: Use a construction with the verb "olvidar" that expresses an "unintentional action"

Correct answer given: Se me ha olvidado

2.       ________ poner el despertador.He [accidentally] forgot to set the alarm clock.HINT: Use a construction with the verb "olvidar" that expresses an "unintentional action"

Correct answer given: Se le olvidó

Both examples feature an action represented by a verb that follows a form of olvidar. This is apparently an example of the accidental “se”. But the examples in this lesson use a different structure. The object forgotten is the subject of the sentence and olvidarse is conjugated with that in mind. It is explicitly stated that the verb is conjugated in the third person plural “to agree with the subject .”  That is not the case on either test item. Plus the test “hints” given are not useful for two reasons:  1) They ask that you use the verb “olvidar” instead of “olvidarse” (misleading) and 2) it says that the verb expresses an “unintentional action”; which is true of all forgetting , no? However, I think I could have figured out what was wanted If the sentence structure of the test item were not different from the lesson (e.g. in the lesson the thing forgotten was the subject of the verb).

Hi Inma, this is one of the most difficult things for me to grasp, especially in the body of a sentence, please could you put this near the top of your list for new lessons?

"

Hola,

Is there a lesson which develops this theme, and discusses when the definite article is used with the noun in the body of a sentence - and if there are times when this is not the case?

Thanks. John"

Please correct the English in these (and other) exercises. Native speakers of English would not say something is "different to". We say, it is "different from". 

E.g., English is different from Spanish in that we use the apostrophe to show the possessive

¿Probaste muchos platos exóticos en el evento gastronómico? Sí, probé ALGUNO.

Ricardo fue a París a ver museos y visitó ALGUNOS.

I can’t see the difference. Can anyone help?