When I find my car keys

Dawn S.C1Kwiziq community member

When I find my car keys

Hola 😊

I translated the above as Cuando me encuentre las llaves. I was marked wrong, the answer is said to lack the "me". I think without the "me" they could be anybody's keys. Am I wrong?

Asked 1 year ago
InmaKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hola Dawn

In this specific sentence, it wouldn't be natural to use the pronoun because "encontrarse algo" generally means that you find something as a surprise/ by chance.

See this lesson here for different uses of encontrar/encontrarse

In this case it is obvious that the person is actively looking for the keys: "cuando encuentre las llaves". This doesn't mean that it's somebody else's keys. We actually use the definite article (el, la, los, las) to refer to things that are obviously ours - no need to use anything that expresses the possession. 

I hope it clarifies it.

Saludos

 

When I find my car keys

Hola 😊

I translated the above as Cuando me encuentre las llaves. I was marked wrong, the answer is said to lack the "me". I think without the "me" they could be anybody's keys. Am I wrong?

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