Advanced clitic phenomena

What it is

At B1 you learned where unstressed pronouns go. At C2 the question is what the pronombres átonos or clíticos (clitic pronouns: me, te, se, lo, la, le, nos, los, las, les) do in real conversation. Four things set native use apart:

• the dativo ético (ethical dative), a me or te that adds emotional involvement rather than a participant (No me llores);
• the fixed order of pronoun clusters, and the repairs speakers make when a cluster is impossible;
• pronombres lexicalizados (fixed pronouns), a la or las that refers to nothing but belongs to an idiom (arreglárselas);
• regional patterns you will hear every day: se los dije in Latin America, ¡Ándale! in Mexico, leísmo in Spain.

How to form it

Order. Inside a cluster the order never changes: se first, then second person, then first person, then third person (in Spain, os fills the second-person slot). The cluster goes before a conjugated verb and is attached to an affirmative command, an infinitive or a gerund (Cuídamela, Voy a contártelo).

Impossible clusters. Some combinations are ungrammatical, and native speakers repair them without thinking:

The third and fourth rows are the C2 point: when a dative is present, the direct-object clitic must be third person. Keep me or te as the clitic and name the other person with a él, a ella or a ellos.

Fixed pronouns. In these idioms the pronoun has no antecedent, yet you can neither replace it nor leave it out:

When to use it

• Este niño no me come nada desde el lunes.This boy hasn't eaten a thing since Monday, and I'm worried sick.ethical dative: the parent suffers the situation
• Y en plena clase, el profe te saca una guitarra y se pone a cantar.And right in the middle of class, the teacher pulls out a guitar and starts singing.te draws the listener into the story
• Se las da de experta, pero nunca ha cocinado.She acts like an expert, but she has never cooked.fixed las: dárselas de
• Ya le dije a mis primos que no voy.I've already told my cousins I'm not going.le for les: everyday speech; write les
• A tu hermano le vi ayer en el Retiro.I saw your brother yesterday in the Retiro park.Spain: leísmo; Latin America says lo vi

The ethical dative belongs to affectionate or anxious speech: parents, partners, friends. It is frequent in requests (No me llores, Cuídamela) and complaints (El niño no me come). Two tests tell it apart from an ordinary indirect object: it can't be doubled with a mí (No me llores a mí is impossible), and it can be removed without changing what happens (No llores). With te, it pulls the listener into a story and sounds lively and very colloquial.

Fixed pronouns are everyday colloquial Spanish; learn each one as a whole verb, pronoun included.

Se los for se lo (a ellos) is extremely common in Latin American speech (Ya se los dije = I've already told them), but careful writing keeps se lo. Spain doesn't use it.

Leísmo and laísmo are for recognition. Le vi for a man is accepted in Spain; la dije (laísmo) is regional and non-standard. If you speak Latin American Spanish, imitate neither.

Try it

Five quick exercises from this topic's training set:

Contrasts and traps

• Ethical or indirect? In No me mientas, me is the person lied to (you can add a mí); in No me llores, me is only emotionally involved.
• me le. Impossible when me is the direct object (Me le recomendaron), fine when me is ethical: No me le hagas caso ("Don't pay him any attention, please").
• se lo or se los. In Latin America, Se los di can mean "I gave them to him" or "I gave it to them"; context decides.
• Fixed or literal? Arreglar algo is "to fix something"; arreglárselas is "to manage". Jugar is "to play"; jugársela is "to take a risk".
• Mexican -le. In ¡Ándale!, ¡Órale!, ¡Híjole! and ¡Apúrale! the le refers to nothing; it adds energy. With ustedes, the verb often goes plural: ¡Ándenle!, ¡Pásenle!

For Portuguese speakers

Brazilian Portuguese rarely combines two clitics and often drops a third-person object altogether. Spanish can do neither, and most Brazilian errors start there:

• — Devolveu a chave pra ela? — Já devolvi. → —¿Le devolviste la llave? —Sí, ya se la devolví, not ya le devolví.
• Caiu meu celular. → Se me cayó el celular. Spanish puts the person who suffers the accident in me.
• Ele se vira. → Se las arregla. (Virarse means "to turn around".)
• Você me paga! → ¡Me las vas a pagar!, with las.
• Cuide dela pra mim. → Cuídamela. The pra mim becomes an ethical dative.
• Divirta-se! → ¡Que la pases bien! (Spain: ¡Que lo pases bien!).