outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4954 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean
| Message 1 of 6 25 March 2014 at 6:09pm | IP Logged |
So out of sheer curiosity, are foreign learners of Spanish taught "morir" or "morirse"? Or is there some nuance that I don't grasp even as a native speaker?
And does anyone know if there is a "correct" version of this.
I hear both 50% of the time. It seems to vary within region to region (sometimes in very close proximity), and within speakers too, whether it is reflexive or not.
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sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4641 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin
| Message 2 of 6 25 March 2014 at 6:17pm | IP Logged |
I was taught that "morirse" was to die gradually while "morir" is just to die.
Se esta muriendo mi abuela al hospital. Still alive, but almost dead.
Mi gato ha muerto. Boom, dead.
also, I've heard that morirse is used when someone died of natural causes.
Edited by sillygoose1 on 25 March 2014 at 6:19pm
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James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5380 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French
| Message 3 of 6 25 March 2014 at 6:23pm | IP Logged |
I was taught "morirse" from a Dominican friend.
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nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4331 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German
| Message 4 of 6 25 March 2014 at 6:40pm | IP Logged |
I think "morirse" is generally more colloquial than "morir", at least in Argentina. If
someone from my neighborhood dies, my neighbors would surely tell me: "Se murió Fulano".
But if a famous person passes away, newspapers will say "Murió Mengano de Tal".
However, the expression "Se está muriendo" sounds totally acceptable to me, even in more
formal contexts. In fact, I think that if someone said "Está muriendo", without the "se"
pronoun, it would sound awkward.
Edited by nicozerpa on 25 March 2014 at 6:42pm
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Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5325 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English
| Message 5 of 6 25 March 2014 at 7:47pm | IP Logged |
nicozerpa wrote:
someone from my neighborhood dies, my neighbors would surely tell me: "Se murió Fulano". |
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Fun fact: Fulano is apparently derived from an Arabic word.
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Javi Senior Member Spain Joined 5986 days ago 419 posts - 548 votes Speaks: Spanish*
| Message 6 of 6 29 March 2014 at 10:52pm | IP Logged |
Morirse is a more colloquial, affectionate version or morir, when the death is from natural causes. You can't use "morirse" to mean being killed, like for example in car accident(murió en un accidente de tráfico), so the difference goes far beyond nuance.
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