1

I have heard the following sentence in the Narcos TV series:

No se me preocupe por Valeria.

Context: Pablo Escobar is telling his wife that she does not need to worry about Valeria Velez, a reporter which is covering his candidacy for the Colombian Senate.

What does the pronoun "me" mean here, given that the person who is being worried about is the wife and not Pablo?

edit: although Se les puso nerviosa - meaning of "les" explains the pronoun general meaning in this sentence (speaker got affected by the fact of his wife getting worried), that answer alone is not enough to explain how the speaker got affected. It seems to me that can only be inferred from the context of each particular sentence in which the "dativo ético" is used.

Alan Evangelista
  • 2,603
  • 9
  • 22
  • 1
    This is again a case of dativo ético, with almost exactly the same meaning as les in "Se les puso nerviosa", which you asked about here . – wimi Dec 13 '19 at 17:41
  • @wimi I see. Is the implied meaning something like "Do not worry about Valeria otherwise I'll get worried too" ? – Alan Evangelista Dec 13 '19 at 17:53
  • 3
    In general, it means "Do not worry about Valeria. I care if you worry". Normally, the reason why "I care" is that "I care about you". But it could also be "because you will complain all the time and make my life harder". After all, it is Narcos. – wimi Dec 13 '19 at 18:47
  • This is indeed an ethical dative. Pablo is telling his wife that if she worries, he will feel bad too. (I seem to remember Pablo Escobar, or at least the P.E. depicted in Narcos, often did this kind of thing.) – pablodf76 Dec 13 '19 at 21:00
  • @wimi - and ... – aparente001 Dec 14 '19 at 01:27
  • @pablodf76 - Since neither of you drafted an Answer, I'm guessing this is a duplicate? But I'm not sure. This one was a bit unusual compared to the other examples in the canonical q-a. I feel unsure, because neither of you voted to close (as a duplicate). – aparente001 Dec 14 '19 at 01:29
  • I just voted to close. – pablodf76 Dec 14 '19 at 12:39
  • @wimi the concept of "dativo ético" is clear, but I still have trouble sometimes identifying it because object pronouns can have so many usages in Spanish. Also, "to be affected by something" is pretty generic and it was not obvious to me how the speaker was affected by the fact (eg getting worried too or getting stressed out/angry). Therefore, the linked answer wouldn't completely answer my question. – Alan Evangelista Dec 14 '19 at 14:14
  • 1
    @Alan I understand, these pronouns must be quite hard for a non-native. I hope we are helping you learn it! – wimi Dec 14 '19 at 15:08
  • @Alan (note that that comment "Does this answer your question" was automatically generated by the system when I voted to close. The motivation for closing is not having too many separate questions that are examples of dativo ético) – wimi Dec 14 '19 at 15:11
  • Does this character use "usted" with his wife? I have a friend from South America who uses "usted" with EVERYONE except her children. Was this character really talking to his wife when he said that? // I voted to close because I saw that the commenters eventually did. But then I realized there is a tricky aspect to this particular sentence and voted to reopen. Sorry for the itchy trigger finger. – aparente001 Dec 14 '19 at 22:09
  • Alan, how about you include season and episode numbers, and time stamps, for the questions in this Narcos series, in case someone is inspired to check their understanding, and listen to the context? – aparente001 Dec 14 '19 at 22:12
  • @aparente001 Yes, the speaker is talking to his wife and uses "se" instead of "te". The dialogue is approx at 24 minutes of S01E03 of the Narcos TV series. – Alan Evangelista Dec 14 '19 at 23:38
  • No one else is voting to reopen yet, so I'll write a comment instead of an answer. First, I will convert the sentence to the informal (tú) because that's more natural for me to think about. "No te me preocupes por Valeria" -- I think it's worthwhile to specify what exactly the "me" is accomplishing here. I have two ideas. (a) Don't go all jealous on me about Valeria [pointing out that getting jealous (worrying) would annoy the speaker. (b) Don't be worried about Valeria on my account. – aparente001 Dec 15 '19 at 02:55

1 Answers1

1

This is a case of "dativo ético". The pronoun "me" indicates that the fact of Pablo's wife getting worried affects Pablo somehow: either he will feel bad if she gets worried because he cares about her or it will stress him out. Given the affectionate way Pablo treats his wife in the Narcos TV series, the first alternative is more likely.

Alan Evangelista
  • 2,603
  • 9
  • 22