Spanish Word of the Day
Saturday, November 30, 2013 Yesterday's Word - Previous Words - Help ocurrir, verb
to think of In English when we think of things the subject of the verb is usually the person doing the thinking. However, in formal English, we reverse the construction, and ideas can 'occur' to us, as in 'Something's just occurred to me.' Spanish reverses things too, using ocurrirse. It looks a bit like formal English. BUT remember: it's reflexive, it isn't formal, and in Spanish it has only one c but two rs! No se me ocurre nada que decirle.
I can't think of anything to say to her. ¿Se te ocurre algo?
Can you think of anything? Se me ocurren varios nombres.
I can think of various names. Notice how in English we use 'can' in the previous examples, but not in Spanish.
The translation is not always think of. How you translate ocurrirse may vary according to what the subject of the verb is in Spanish: Se me ocurrió una idea brillante.
I had a brilliant idea. In particular, the following phrases require very idiomatic translations: Nunca se me había ocurrido que era capaz de hacerlo.
It never crossed my mind or It never entered my head that he was capable of doing it. ¿A quién se le ocurre decir semejantes barbaridades a un sacerdote?
Who in their right mind would say such outrageous things to a priest? or How could anyone think of saying such outrageous things to a priest?
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