Ready for another one of those tricksome chunks with
se?
No?!
Yeah, I feel your pain… stacked pronouns can be pretty darn confusing!
But if you learn these kinds of phrases as chunks, I promise they get soooo much easier!
Anyway, the first use of
se me pasó is when something slips your mind.
A bit like the English:
👉
I completely forgot
Now, you
CAN use it on its lonesome, but it also works with an infinitive to say what exactly it is you forgot.
A bit like
I forgot to do something in English.
Ay, mil disculpas, se me pasó contestarte.I'm so sorry, I completely forgot to reply to you.
Híjole, se me pasó avisarte.Oops, I completely forgot to tell you.
And it can also be used with nouns, often when you
MISS an event / deadline / registration period / etc.
¿Se te pasó la inscripción?Did you miss registration?
Se me pasó la fecha de pago.I missed the payment deadline.
Perdón, se me pasó la hora.Sorry, I lost track of time.
But that's not all my Mexican-Spanish-loving pals…
You can also use
pasársele (yep, that's the infinitive form!) to talk about an emotion, feeling, pain, etc. going away!
Si comes un bolillo, se te va a pasar el susto.If you eat a bread roll, you’ll get over the shock.
Ya se me pasó el enojo.I'm not angry anymore.
No te preocupes, se me va a pasar.Don't worry, I'll get over it.
🐦 So yeah, don't worry about a thing, only three lil' birds (I mean, patterns!) to remember:
se me pasó + noun →
I forgot / missed / overlooked something
se me pasó + infinitive →
I forgot to do something
pasársele + emotion / feeling / state →
the feeling went away / I'm over it
🚦 And just like other
se me structures (
se me olvidó / se me ocurrió / se me fue / etc.), you can think of this structure like a traffic light:
🔴
se =
the red light =
NEVER CHANGES
🟢
me / te / le / nos / les =
the green light = changes depending on
WHO forgot/missed something
🟡
pasó / pasaron =
the yellow light = changes depending on
WHAT exactly slipped your mind
Se me pasó la fecha.I forgot/missed the date.
Se le pasaron las fechas.He/she forgot/missed the dates.
❄️ It’s ‘stick-this-on-your-fridge’ time!In Mexico,
se me olvidó is also
VERY common when you're talking about pure forgetting (more so than
se me pasó, in my personal experience, but further research is pending).
Se me pasó is, though, extremely common in the emotion went away sense!
And finally, if you want to say that you lost your train of thought, you need to reach for
se me fue (and its many derivatives!).