El se accidental

In Spanish, a sentence with se is often used to talk about unexpected and unintended events-that is, accidents that someone may have caused but in an unintentional manner. This construction is often referred to as accidental se. The desired effect is to show someone (who could be the actual "doer" of the action) as the "victim" of the mishap.

Examples:
Yọ olvidé la cita. —> Se me olvidó la cita.
Isabel perdió los contratos. —> Se le perdieron los contratos.

acabar/terminar

to run out (of something)

borrar

to erase, to delete

сaer

to fall

olvidar

to forget

perder

to lose

quedar

to remain / to leave (behind)

quemar

to burn

mojar

to get wet

romper

to break

• The accidental -se construction is grammatically a reflexive action: it appears as if the object of the action does something to itself. The indirect object shows who "suffers" from the action and, very likely, who actually caused the accident. The indirect object may not always appear; either we do not know who caused the accident or may not want to acknowledge what we did.

Se rompieron las gafas. ->The glasses broke. (unknown cause)
Se me rompieron las gafas. ->My glasses broke. (I broke them.)
Se le rompieron las gafas. ->Her glasses broke. (She broke them.)
- ¡Papi, se cayó la leche! - Daddy, the milk spilled!
Ya veo. ¿Cómo se te cayó? -I see. How did you spill it? (How did it spill on you?)

• Possession with the accidental se can be marked by the indirect object pronoun alone, as in the reflexive constructions that describe daily routine. The use of a possessive adjective typically marks an owner different from the doer.

Se me rompieron las gafas. ->My glasses broke. /I broke my glasses.
Se me rompieron tus gafas. ->I broke your glasses.