Literal translation?

Question

In the question "En el viaje ________ un niño atrás", the answer was 'se nos quedó'. Could you give a literal translation of this sentence because otherwise it seems like the verb agrees with the object of the sentence rather than the subject. I guess I'm asking for a way of translating quedar in my head so that even if it makes the English awkward, I can also keep straight subject and object (much like I can substitute "is pleasing" for gustar).

Thanks!

Answer

Hi R
En el viaje se nos quedó un niño atrás. 
(We accidentally left one child behind on the trip.)
We could say that a more literal translation would be:
A boy was left behind to us (this "to us" meaning we were the affected ones)
( ~ Un niño se quedó atrás a nosotros)
You can see that "un niño" is the subject, then the verb is matching with the subject in the singular form "se quedó", and "nos" has the form of an indirect object pronoun.
Inma