Comerse y beberse: totalidad y disfrute

Reflexivos intensificadores: comerse/beberse para indicar totalidad/disfrute, con mini-quiz.

Dannis

2 min reading time

Food and cooking Colloquialisms and slang Verbs Aspects

Keywords:

comer comerse beber beberse me comí nos bebimos

Key idea: with "se", *comerse*/*beberse* get stronger. They indicate that you finish it all (totality) and, sometimes, that you enjoy it. Roughly like "eat/drink it all up" in English.

Comer vs comerse: Comí la paella. = neutral action. Me comí la paella (entera). = I finished it; sounds more emphatic.

Beber vs beberse: Bebimos vino. = neutral. Nos bebimos la botella. = we finished the bottle; more colloquial, sometimes with an idea of enjoyment.

In Spain, eating is social: *tapas*, *cañas* and long *sobremesas*. You’ll hear these forms a lot in bars.

With specific quantities it works great: *Me comí un bocadillo*; *Nos bebimos dos cervezas*; *¿Te vas a comer el postre?*

Careful: it’s not always literal. *Comerse un marrón* = to swallow/put up with an unpleasant problem (colloquial), not food.

Negation and partial: *No me terminé la sopa.* / *Me comí casi todo.* Without "se" it sounds more neutral: *No comí mucha sopa.*

Other similar verbs: *leerse*, *verse*. *Me leí el libro* (= the whole thing). *Nos vimos la serie* (= the whole series). Very colloquial.

Comprehension check:

¿Qué frase indica claramente que se terminó todo?

Nos bebimos la jarra.

Bebimos un poco de vino.

Bebimos agua.

"Nos bebimos la jarra" shows totality because of the clitic "nos" + "beberse". Roughly: "we drank the whole jug".

Focus on "se" (me/te/se/nos/os/se) as a marker of completeness.

Ayer ___ la tarta: no quedó nada.

comí

me comí

comía

"Me comí" intensifies and indicates that the cake was finished. "Comía" is imperfect (description), and "comí" doesn’t emphasize totality. Roughly: "I ate the whole thing."

Think of "all the way / completely": which form expresses that best?

¿Qué significa «comerse un marrón» en coloquial?

Disfrutar una comida especial

Tragarse un problema desagradable

Vomitar tras comer

It’s an idiom: "comerse un marrón" = to accept/put up with an unpleasant problem. It’s not literally about food.

It isn’t food: it’s a problem you accept even though you don’t really want to.