The Spanish Se aspectual

Using the se aspectual in Spanish for emphasis, subjectivity, culmination

In Spanish, particularly in conversational Spanish, we often use verbs that are not traditionally pronominal with a reflexive pronoun. This is called "se aspectual." While this doesn't dramatically change the meaning of the verb, there is always an element of subjectivity in the pronominal form.

The way the listener sees the action is different with the se aspectual.

• It expresses the culmination/completion of an action, for example with verbs like comer or beber.

Although the meaning is similar, comer simply states what happened and focuses more on the action, whilst comerse adds the nuance of culmination/completion of the action. This sense of culmination is often expressed in English with a preposition (eat up, drink up). The listener perceives these two sentences in a slightly different way. 

• The se aspectual is also used with perception and knowledge verbs to indicate this same sense of culmination/completion, for example:

In the examples above, the verbs that are not using the se aspectual convey more of an open-ended action, while the examples that use the se aspectual imply an implicit end moment.

• ir vs irse

When we use irse, instead of just ir, we perceive the action differently: the meaning of the verb irse is more intense/complete. With irse, we are implying more than just the action of "going" or "going somewhere"; for example:

In the first example, the focus is on the destination (the most important part is where she went). In the second example with the se aspectual, the focus is on the action of leaving more than the destination - there is more implicit information: the listener understands that she left and headed to Mallorca. 

• creer algo vs creerse algo

There is a similar effect as between ir and irse. Have a look at the following examples:

• morir vs morirse:

There is a tendency to use morir when it's more impersonal, objective, with little emotional involvement from the speaker. It is also far more common to use morir in written Spanish.

In spoken Spanish, it is much more frequent to use morirse when the speaker is showing personal affection. In addition, it refers to the "process" of dying:

•  pasar vs pasarse

If we use pasarse, we indicate that the subject is more involved in the action; for example:

The examples with the se aspectual indicate more involvement, while without it, the subject is more detached from the action.

• Pensar vs pensarse

Another verb that often uses the se aspectual is the verb "pensar". Here are two examples, the first one using the reflexive pronoun expresses more intensity and involvement by the subject:

while this second example without the reflexive pronoun is more neutral: