Newbie - No internet!

Hola

could you please explain to me the difference between the below 3 sentences?

es que me olvidé pagar la cuenta

es que olvidé pagar la cuenta

es que yo olvidé pagar la cuenta

Gracias

@anbarfa

There isn't a difference in definition or meaning among these sentences.  They are just examples of  other ways of saying the same thing.

MM

marco,

In anbarfa's examples we have both

me olvidé y yo olvidé 

In English, (pardon the rusty hinges on this, I haven't looked in this corner for a while ...) I is subjective and me objective and each has it's place. Sometimes general mis-usage makes a saying the norm, but in formal writing there is a preferred way to state things.

Is there a preferred form here?

I think that:

Olvidé is olvidar just 1st/single person preterite

Yo olvidé is olvidar the same with an added subject pronoun for empahasis?

and me olvidé is olvidarse, no?

As for the nuances in meaning between olvidar and olvidarse, no sé. Quizas nada, como Marco dije.

That sounds reasonable Russ, I guess I am just applying an English bias...

oh well.

On the subject of internet,  there was an online chat session going on in Spanish with

I think I remember JP giving a translation saying literally "it was forgotten to me" about olvidar or olvidarse and that it meant "I forgot", but I can't for the life of me remember (olvidé.. je je) what lesson or show that might have been in.

Maybe that wasn't even the same word  :)

I believe you are thinking of se me olvidó which shifts the blame back onto the forgotten object rather than olvidarse which emphasises the personal and internal aspect of forgetting. You can find this loop in several lesson discussions on site unfortunately se me olvidó donde estan.

thankfully wordreference has a much better way of accessing such discussions

Thats it...se me olvidó...that's what I was thinking of.

On another note...Is it my imagination or are there are relatively few of us even commenting lately...seems a lot of users are missing lately and there is also a conspicuous lack of comments from Lili, Leo and Yenni.

On the plus side, I've learned alot from you all lately...thanks.

Hi Russ, yeah kind of quiet around here lately.

Here are some examples that I saved from Esti:

1.-Olvidé tu regalo. 

2.-Me olvidé de tu regalo.

3.-Se me olvidó tu regalo.

1.-Olvidó el almuerzo.

2.-Se olvidó del almuerzo.

3.-Se le olvidó el almuerzo.

1.-Olvidamos su cumpleaños.

2.-Nos olvidamos de su cumpleaños.

3.-Se nos olvidó su cumpleaños.

1.- OLVIDAR + O.D. (emphasis on the direct object)

2.- O.I. + OLVIDAR + DE + O.D. (emphasis on the indirect object)

3.- SE + O.I. + OLVIDAR + O.D. (emphasis on the indirect object+reflexive)

Yeah and over on Englishpod, a Mexican told me I really needed to practice my Spanish... (sigh)

It was said earlier that Leo was off on vacation.

Marco seems to be holding the fort. (¡Muchas Gracias!)
posts by our hosts...

 . . spanishpod, chinesepod, englishpod, frenchpod,
yenny. Sep 29, . none, . . . .none, . . . . none
marco . Today, . Jan 19, . . . Today , . . . none
lili . . . .Oct 1 , . . Sep 28,  . . Sep 28, . . . Jul 26
leo . . . Sep 16, . May 12 , . .  Aug 6,  . Nov 2-2008

@kikuyu 

Well done on your research!

Going in depth on grammar, what you pointed is exactly right.  

Honestly, the emphasis described above although correct, isn't used as a strict rule.  We can use any of the three forms, using the reflexive pronoun or not.  

@cobre

Thanks for the support over on Epod!  Your Spanish is great!

Here in China, it's the mid- autumn festival.  The Chinese government declared a week long holiday, that's why everyone is off and not many comments have been posted.  You can be sure that tomorrow everyone is going to be back and filling up the comments section as always!

MM

I believe you are thinking of se me olvidó which shifts the blame back onto the forgotten object...

I think the most accurate translation is more like "it slipped my mind", rather than redirecting blame.  

¡Ya estamos de regreso! Fueron unas vacaciones cortas,pero vinieron muy bien.¡Qué bueno saber que nos extrañaron!  :)

Hola Yenny!

Por supuesto! Yo siempre extraño a mis amigos de Spanishpod. Me alegra que ustedes hayan regresado!

Ten un buen fin de semana!

Sí russito, es muy bueno que nuestros amigos se regresaron a tiempo para tomar el fin de semana fuera.

marco_m says 

@cobre

Thanks for the support over on Epod!  Your Spanish is great!

..

Sobre la ayuda, comó dicen los suecos, "Ja, tack för tack." (Gracias - Sí, gracias por gracias - De nada, gracias por gracias para gracias)
del pago de un esfuerzo es un agradecimiento
gracias, y finalmente, él tiene razón, ciertamente yo necesito más práctica!

Buen fin de semana a ustedes también. :)

Hi fellows:

Although I am more confused than before, I really appreciate all your comments.

Regards,

anbarfa

I wrote a comment for you on the subject of olvidar vs. olvidarse in the discussion group "the deep end".

http://spanishpod.com/community/conversations/post/979

Hi stevestr

Thank you for your explanation

If the verb beeing used in the dialoque is olvidarse then it is easy for me to understand but in the dialogue as well as in the vocabulary they only mention the verb olvidar and really this is why I am a bit confused

best regards,

oops!

This may be of some help.  At the very least, the more examples you see the more it helps to clarify things.  All of the links below use examples, not grammar, to help you understand how to use the various ways to talk about forgetting something.

http://myspanishnotes.blogspot.com/2008/07/me-olvide-olvidar-vs-olvidarse.html

http://myspanishnotes.blogspot.com/2009/06/olvidarse-se-me-olvido-part-two.html

http://myspanishnotes.blogspot.com/2009/07/olividar-olvidarse-part-3.html

http://myspanishnotes.blogspot.com/2009/07/olvidar-olvidarse-part-4.html

When a "new" word comes into play in Spanish, from English, are there any rules for determining the gender of that word ?

For example, it's only been in the last few decades that the word "Internet" has come into play in English.

When a word "transfers" over to Spanish, who determines the gender [ The REAL or just by general useage ] ?

Dave

Ha ha ...Marco...Monica is looking for you

Claro russito, ella lo vio y empezaba para chuparse los dedos.

Wow !!

The Internet is trully astonishing.

All we have to do is send her photos and she will explain the grammatical rules for determining the gender of brand new words in Spanish.

I trully believe she will have all the answers to complex questions on the subjunctive and the various uses of "se".......

What a stroke of luck.

Dave

Great lesson, but this is definitely not at the Newbie level.   Should be graded at least as Elementary.