When I find my car keys

Dawn S.C1Kwiziq community member

When I find my car keys

Hola 😊

I translated the above as Cuando me encuentre las llaves. I was marked wrong, the answer is said to lack the "me". I think without the "me" they could be anybody's keys. Am I wrong?

Asked 1 year ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hola Dawn

In this specific sentence, it wouldn't be natural to use the pronoun because "encontrarse algo" generally means that you find something as a surprise/ by chance.

See this lesson here for different uses of encontrar/encontrarse

In this case it is obvious that the person is actively looking for the keys: "cuando encuentre las llaves". This doesn't mean that it's somebody else's keys. We actually use the definite article (el, la, los, las) to refer to things that are obviously ours - no need to use anything that expresses the possession. 

I hope it clarifies it.

Saludos

 

Dawn S. asked:

When I find my car keys

Hola 😊

I translated the above as Cuando me encuentre las llaves. I was marked wrong, the answer is said to lack the "me". I think without the "me" they could be anybody's keys. Am I wrong?

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