Today I am going to talk about a common mistake that English speaker often make with reflexive verbs in Spanish. I have a story to share with you that will help illustrate my point. A couple days, I was in a recording studio recording our podcast lessons. And there is a section of every podcast that we do called "Los Consejos Para No Sonar Como Un Gringo" (Advice Not To Sound Like a Gringo.)
And when we were doing "Los Consejos Para No Sonar Como Un Gringo" I thought about an American friend here in Medellin, Colombia who always makes certain mistakes when speaking Spanish. And one mistake that he always makes is a mistake that I call the "Excessive use of possessive adjectives when referring to body parts and articles of clothing".
Let me give you a few examples of statements that I have heard him say:
WRONG: Me duele mi cabeza.
He should have said "Me duele la cabeza." If you want to say "my head hurts" or "I have a headache" in Spanish you only need to say "Me duele la cabeza."
"Me duele" literally means "it hurts me." And there is no need in Spanish to use the phrase "mi cabeza" (my head) instead of "la cabeza" (the head)."
It is implied in the phrase "me duele la cabeza" that is my head that hurts me. Surely it would seem strange if someone else's head was causing me a headache. Here's another mistake that I heard him make:
WRONG: Voy a cepillarme mis dientes.
He should have said "voy a cepillarme los dientes." "Voy a cepillar" literally means "I am going to brush." And there is no need in Spanish to use the phrase "mis dientes" (my teeth) instead of "los dientes" (the teeth). It is implied in the phrase "voy a cepillarme los dientes" that you are going to brush your teeth. That's because we usually don't brush someone else's teeth.
I have one more example. I went to my same American friend's house a few days ago. When I arrived, his girlfriend must have been in the bathroom showering. And he wanted to make sure that she didn't come out of the bathroom undressed not knowing that I was there. And he yelled out "Ponte tu ropa."
That phrase "ponte tu ropa" is NOT the correct way to say "put on your clothes" in Spanish. He should have said "ponte la ropa."
"Ponte" literally means "put on you." And there is no need in Spanish to use the phrase "tu ropa" (your clothes) instead of "la ropa" (the clothes). It is implied in the phrase "ponte la ropa" that it is YOUR clothes that I am telling you to put on. Unless of course, my friend thought that there was a risk that his girlfriend was going to exit the bathroom wearing his shoes, his pants and his shirt.
It is probably obvious to you why my American friend made these mistakes when speaking Spanish... Because that's the way speak in English. Well, sometimes we speak that way in English.
Although in English we may just say "Put some clothes on" without specifying whose clothes you want someone to put on. But we would never simply say "I am going to brush THE teeth." Despite the fact that it is obvious to the listener whose teeth you are going to brush, you would still make it clear that you are going to brush your teeth by saying "I am going to brush MY teeth."
I just wanted to tell you about this mistake so that you avoid the mistake of excessively using possessive adjectives when referring to body parts and articles of clothing when using reflexive verbs in Spanish. And always keep in mind that the Spanish language has its own set of rules of grammar and many are not consistent with English rules of grammar.
Pat Jackson is the Founder of Learning Spanish Like Crazy - the only learning Spanish method that teaches real authentic everyday conversational Latin American Spanish. Pat presently lives in Medellín, Colombia - the City of Eternal Spring. If you would like to get FREE Instant access to the first 2 MP3 auido lessons of Learning Spanish Like Crazy and get FREE instant access to 10 learning Spanish videos from one of our BEAUTIFUL native-Spanish speaking Latina instructors, then go here now: Learn Spanish online That's http://www.LearningSpanishLikeCrazy.com/
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