Why didn't you use "te hayas" in the example " ¡No puedo creer que te haya tocado la lotería!"

Gail G.C1Kwiziq community member

Why didn't you use "te hayas" in the example " ¡No puedo creer que te haya tocado la lotería!"

Asked 5 years ago
InmaKwiziq team member

Hola Gail

"Tocar la lotería [a alguien]" means "someone winning the lottery, but in Spanish this verbs works differently to English. It works the same way as "gustar". The subject of the sentence is always going to be "la lotería", so the verb will agree with la lotería, and whoever wins it will be an Indirect object (me, te, le...) So, here are some sentences:

"A Juan le tocó la lotería ayer" (Juan won the lottery yesterday.)

"A mí nunca me ha tocado un premio" (I´ve never won a prize.)

Now, look at his sentence with gustar:

"A mi me encanta Shakira" (I love Shakira) 

Can you see the same pattern?

Hope it helps

Inma

Gail G.C1Kwiziq community member

Brilliant!  I knew there must be a good reason.  Thanks for the clarification.  It does make me wonder how many more verbs function this way that I am currently unaware of though.  Sigh . . 

Why didn't you use "te hayas" in the example " ¡No puedo creer que te haya tocado la lotería!"

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