Spanish · Chapter 32 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
The accidental se: se me cayó, se me olvidó
The no-fault se that turns an accident into something that happened TO you: se + indirect pronoun + verb agreeing with the thing (se me olvidaron las llaves). The verbs that love it, and why Spanish dodges blame this way.
The short version
The glass fell itself on me
The accidental se lets the mishap happen by itself and merely notes who was unlucky enough to be nearby, so se me cayó el vaso says 'I dropped the glass' with no confession attached. The catch is agreement: the thing is the grammatical subject, so the verb matches it and not you. Never se me caí.
Se me cayeron los vasos.
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