Sadden usage

Question

Curious how common the use of "sadden" is? In English, it would be much more natural/common to say "the film makes me sad" or "stray dogs make me sad" although you could also say "they sadden me." Does "los perros abandonados me hacen (o me ponen) triste" exist in common Spanish usage, or do speakers usually use  the reflexive? Thank you!

Silvia Píriz · Accepted Answer

Hola Meredith C.
This is a really good question, Meredith, and your intuition from English is actually pointing you in the right direction.
In Spanish, there isn’t a single verb equivalent to “to sadden” that’s commonly used in everyday speech. While verbs like entristecer do exist, they tend to sound more formal or literary. In natural, everyday Spanish, speakers overwhelmingly prefer structures like hacer + adjective or similar expressions.
So your examples are spot on:
Los perros abandonados me hacen triste. (not correct)
Los perros abandonados me hacen sentir triste. (correct)
Los perros abandonados me ponen triste. (very natural)
Los perros abandonados me entristecen. (correct, but more formal)
The most common and idiomatic options are:
me pone(n) triste (very natural, widely used)
me hace(n) sentir triste (slightly more explicit)
me da(n) tristeza (a bit more emotive/abstract)
You’ll notice that Spanish prefers these “emotion structures” rather than a direct verb equivalent of “to sadden”. This is consistent with other similar verbs (aburrir, molestar, preocupar), where the focus is on how something affects you.
As for reflexive forms, they’re not typically used in this case (me entristezco would mean “I become sad”, not “it saddens me”), so they express a slightly different idea.
I hope this helps clarify things.
Hasta pronto
Silvia