Say More with Less: The Power of Se Aspectual and Dativo de Interés in Spanish
[Para español, ver abajo.] This article explains two grammatical concepts that share a characteristic - they use particles that are considered optional in most cases, but they provide an additional nuance or meaning if used, all while making you sound like a native Spanish speaker ! The use of se for verbs that aren't usually reflexive, which is known as se aspectual and puts reflexive pronouns me, te, SE, nos, and os to work. And a phenomenon known as dativo de interés , dativo ético , dativo aspectual , dativo intensivo or dativo concordado, which involves the use of indirect pronouns me , te , LE , nos, os. Aspectual SE (and its other forms me, te, nos, os) To illustrate the concept, let's use a very common verb: comer . It's a verb that usually doesn't require a reflexive pronoun. You can say "Mi hermana come pizza", and we all understand it's a habitual action in the present tense, but if I say "Mi hermana se come la pizza"