{"id":3541,"date":"2011-10-10T15:38:09","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T19:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/?p=3541"},"modified":"2011-10-10T15:38:09","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T19:38:09","slug":"perifrasis-verbal-liarse-a-infinitivo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/perifrasis-verbal-liarse-a-infinitivo\/","title":{"rendered":"Per\u00edfrasis verbal: liarse a + infinitivo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi, everybody! Espero que est\u00e9n todos bien.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today let’s take a look at the verb phrase liarse a<\/strong> followed by the infinitive in Spanish. This phrase expresses the beginning of an action where its timespan is not clearly perceived, because you basically do something and lose track of time.<\/p>\n

People usually use this per\u00edfrasis to express a perfect excuse for not doing something. Here’s an example:<\/p>\n

Perd\u00f3name el retraso, pero es que me he liado<\/strong> a<\/strong> limpiar la casa y no me he dado cuenta de la hora.<\/em>
\nSorry I’m late, but I got caught up in cleaning the house and didn’t realize how late it was.<\/p>\n

Me he retrasado, lo siento. Me he liado a<\/strong> corregir los ex\u00e1menes de los alumnos y he perdido la noci\u00f3n del tiempo.<\/em>
\nI’m late, sorry. I got caught up in correcting my students’ tests and I have lost track of time.<\/p>\n

It can also be used not as an excuse, but as a means of saying that you just lost track of time:<\/p>\n

Me li\u00e9 a<\/strong> estudiar a las cuatro, y cuando mir\u00e9 la hora ya eran las siete.<\/em>
\nI got caught up in studying at four and when I looked at the time it was already seven.<\/p>\n

However, the time references are not the only ones since in other cases what is emphasized is the non-controlled use of the action being performed:<\/p>\n

Se li\u00f3 a<\/strong> comer pasteles, hasta que ya no hubo.<\/em>
\nHe started eating cakes until there was none left.<\/p>\n

El ladr\u00f3n se li\u00f3 a<\/strong> correr al ver la polic\u00eda.<\/em>
\nThe thief started running when he saw the police. (And kept on running for some time.)<\/p>\n

In the sentence above the person started eating cakes and didn’t stop, because they couldn’t control it. Here’s another example:<\/p>\n

Se li\u00f3 a<\/strong> insultarnos, hasta que lleg\u00f3 la polic\u00eda.<\/em>
\nHe kept on insulting us until the police arrived.<\/p>\n

Elena se li\u00f3 a<\/strong> gritar al ver el rat\u00f3n.<\/em>
\nElena started crying when she saw the mouse. (She kept on crying for some time.)<\/p>\n

Why don’t you write some more sentences with the liarse a + infinitive<\/strong> per\u00edfrasis? Looking forward to your comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi, everybody! Espero que est\u00e9n todos bien. Today let’s take a look at the verb phrase liarse a followed by the infinitive in Spanish. This phrase expresses the beginning of an action where its timespan is not clearly perceived, because you basically do something and lose track of time. People usually use this per\u00edfrasis to…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[66,125,166],"class_list":["post-3541","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-expressions","tag-prepositions","tag-verbs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3545,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541\/revisions\/3545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}