# me alegro / me alegra



## Milkyway

Hola a todos:

1. Depending on the gender of the person who says it, does it change into?

(If the speaker is a female) Me alegra.
(If the speaker is a male) Me alegro.

Is that right?


2. how can I say "I'm glad to know you" by using the word 'alegro' in Spanish?
Only the gender of the speaker affects the form of the verb, and not the listeners?


Thank you very much in advance.


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## Flaco06

The gender of the person has no effect on the verb that is used. If you change "me alegro" to "me alegra" the entire meaning of the sentence changes.

Are you saying that you are glad to know someone that you have known for a long time, or glad to meet someone for the first time?


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## Milkyway

Since 'o' is usually used to express male, and 'a' female, I thought if a female speaks, it should be "me alegra", and male, "me alegro." However, after reading your reply, I feel i'm totally wrong.

Actually, I want to say "I'm glad to meet someone for the first time."


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## Sca

Milkyway:
 (yo) me alegro
(a mi) me alegra
It does not matter, here, the gender.
Me alegro/me alegra ( de) conocerte (something that happens right now)
Me alegro/me alegra haberte conocido (Idem, or with a reference to time, for that period)
I hope it is useful to you!


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## cubaMania

Milkyway said:
			
		

> since 'o' is usually used to express male, and 'a' female, I thought if a female speaks, it should be "me alegra", and male, "me alegro." However, after reading your reply, I feel i'm totally wrong.
> 
> Acutally, I wanna say "i'm glad to meet someone for the first time."


Hi Milkyway,
That does not apply to verb conjugation.  What you are thinking of applies (with some exceptions) to adjectives or nouns.


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## Flaco06

To say that you are happy to meet someone for the first time you would say something like "Mucho gusto," or "Mucho gusto en conocerte".


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## Milkyway

Gracias a todos.

1. Then, I cannot use the word "alegrar" when I wanna say "I'm happy to meet you"?

2. I got the exact meaning of "me alegro". (It means "I'm happy," isn't it?)
But, I can't get what exactly "A mí me alegra" means.

Please, help me to figure these out. Thank you...


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## Kimmy81

Hi, Milkyway. 

1. You can use that word to say that you're happy to meet someone.

2. The difference between those two phrases is the verb form itself.
We're dealing here with two different verbs: *alegrarse* and *alegrar*.

When you say: "me alegro", it is conjugated form of *alegrarse*, which means I'm happy. Alegrarse is used to express that one actually makes oneself happy.

Yo me alegro =  I am happy (I please myself)
Tu te alegras =  You are happy (you please yourself)
Il/ella se alegra = He/she is happy (he/she pleases him/herself) etc.
When you say for example, "Mi amigo me alegra..." means "My friend makes me happy...", and that's conjugated form of *alegrar.* Alegrar means that someone/something makes others happy.

Yo alegro = I please someone
Tu alegras = You please someone
Il/ella alegra = He/she pleases someone. Etc. 

Hope that helped you a bit.  Greetings.


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## Milkyway

Thank you very much for your very detailed and kind explanation, Kimmy.
It helps me understand much better.

Then,
1. When I say for example "your email made me happy", would that be "tu email me alegra mucho"? (sorry, I don't know how to make past tense, yet)

2. "me alegro" itself means it is me that make myself happy, not others?

3. If i say "i make my friends happy", would that be "yo alegro mis amigos"??


I'm so sorry for bothering you guys with such silly questions, but I really want to know and study more. Gracias.


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## Kimmy81

Milkyway said:
			
		

> Thank you very much for your very detailed and kind explanation, Kimmy.
> It helps me understand much better.
> 
> Then,
> 1. When I say for example "your email made me happy", would that be "tu email me alegra mucho"? (sorry, I don't know how to make past tense, yet)
> 
> 2. "me alegro" means it is me that make myself happy, not others?
> 
> 3. If i say "i make my friends happy", would that be "yo alegro mis amigos"??
> 
> 
> I'm so sorry for bothering you guys with such silly questions, but I really want to know and study more. Gracias.


 
You're very welcome, Milkyway.

1. Yes, I can see that you've got the sense now. "Your mail makes me very happy" would be the sentence you said. That was absolutely right.

2. "Me alegro" just means that I'm happy. Literally it'd mean "I please myself", but the actual meaning of this is "I'm happy".

3. You're right here. 

And I'll add here 2 ways of saying "happy to get to know you" using those 2 verbs.

- *Me alegro* de conocerte = *I am pleased* to get to know you.
- *Me alegra* de conocerte = *It pleases me* to get to know you.


Hugs,
Kimmy


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## Milkyway

Oh.. big smile is spreading on my face. 
The pleasure of learning new things...
Thank you very much.

키미, 고마워요~


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## Kimmy81

하하... 고맙긴요... 
Wish you further success in learning Spanish. Well, I myself am still learning it, the grammar is surely complicated for some of us...


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## Pedro P. Calvo Morcillo

Kimmy81's post is very accurate!

_(Yo) Me *alegro* cuando Juan está feliz._

*Yo*: Subject.
me: Indirect object.
alegro: verb *1st person*, singular, presente de indicativo.

_Juan (él) me *alegra* cuando está feliz._

*Juan*: Subject.
me: Direct object.
alegra: verb *3rd person*, singular, presente de indicativo.


Presente de alegrar​ 
(Yo) alegro
(Tú) alegras / alegrás
(Él/Ella) alegra
(Nosotros) alegramos
(Vosotros) alegráis / alegran
(Ellos) alegran


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## Pedro P. Calvo Morcillo

Kimmy81 said:
			
		

> And I'll add here 2 ways of saying "happy to get to know you" using those 2 verbs.
> 
> - *Me alegro* de conocerte = *I am pleased* to get to know you.
> - *Me alegra* (de) conocerte = *It pleases me* to get to know you.
> 
> 
> Hugs,
> Kimmy


 
Alegrase de algo:

_(Yo) Me alegro de..._
_(Tú) Te alegras de..._
_(Él/Ella) Se alegra de..._
_(Nosotros) Nos alegramos de..._
_(Vosotros) Os alegrais de..._
_(Ellos) Se alegran de..._

Que alegra:
(Yo) te alegro (a ti).
(Yo) le alegro (a él).
(Yo) os alegro (a vosotros).
(Yo) les alegro (a ellos).

_(Tú) Me alegras (a mí)._
_(Tú) Le alegras (a él)._
_(Tú) nos alegras (a nosotros)._
_(Tú) les alegras (a ellos)._

_(Él) me alegra (a mí)._
_(Él) te alegra (a ti)._
_(Él) nos alegra (a nosotros)._
_(Él) Os alegra (a vosotros)._
_(Él) les alegra (a ellos).

_(Nosotros) te alegramos (a ti).
(Nosotros) le alegramos (a él).
(Nosotros) os alegramos (a vosotros).
(Nosotros) les alegramos (a ellos).

(Vosotros) me alegráis (a mí).
(Vosotros) le alegráis (a él).
(Vosotros) nos alegráis (a nosotros).
(Vosotros) les alegráis (a ellos).

(Ellos) me alegran (a mí).
(Ellos) te alegran (a ti).
(Ellos) le alegran (a él).
(Ellos) nos alegran (a nosotros).
(Ellos) os alegran (a vosotros).


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## Kimmy81

Thank you very much, Pedro.


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## Pedro P. Calvo Morcillo

De nada, un placer.


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## Milkyway

Muchas gracias, Pedro.
Que amable!


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## Kräuter_Fee

Iba a decirte lo mismo que te ha dicho Pedro.
Cuidado con el *de*!

Me alegra de  conocerte ->  eso se llama en español *deísmo*, es decir, cuando usamos un "de" incorrecto. Muchos hablantes nativos hacen *deísmos* y están mal.
En cambio "Me alegro de  conocerte" está bien.


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## jacinta

Hola Milkyway,

I asked this same question a while back.  This information may also be helpful:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=14105


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## Outsider

Even though Kimmy's explanation was good, I think I can add one more thing. The verb phrase "Me alegro" means "I'm glad" or "I'm pleased", and it comes alone, without a complement. The phrase "Me alegra que..." means "It pleases me that..." or "I'm glad that...", and it must come with a complement saying what pleases me.


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## MarkoRagnos

*Cuidado- el **deísmo tambien es un sistema filosofico del siglo XVIII. 
*


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## jmt356

Can "me alegra" be used as a sentence or does it need a clause after "que"? _E.g.:
_Me alegra.
Is that acceptable?


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## PavkaGuru

Milkyway said:


> Oh.. big smile is spreading on my face.
> The pleasure of learning new things...
> Thank you very much.
> 
> 키미, 고마워요~



Hi, Milkyway

Alegrar is a special verb in Spanish. It acts like a transitive verb or as pronominal verb. It depends upon the context. 

"Me alegro" is a pronominal form. The personal pronoun "yo" in this case is ommitted: "[yo] Me alegro de conocerte" --> I'm glad to meet you
"Me alegra" although is a pronominal form is slightly different. In this case the personal pronoun does not exist: "Me alegra conocerte" --> Glad to meet you

Note that in the first case, the verb is followed by the preposition "de" (of) 
The second form is also a transitive from of the verb: "Me alegra saber que ganaste" --> I'm happy to know that you won

I hope this will be helpful for you

Regards


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## plsdeluno

Por favor tengo una pequeña duda sobre las dos maneras ''Me alegro de/me alegra'' Entiendo la diferencias entre las dos pero ¿me gustaría saber si una de las dos maneras suena mejor que la otra?

Yo había escrito la siguiente frase ''Me alegro de decirte que desde entonces nunca más me ha pedido que ......''

Tres persons corrigron la frase y todas hiceron el mismo cambio ''Me alegra decirte que .......''

Una de la personas tan amable de corregírmelo dejó un comentario para informarme de la manera que yo había escrito la frase no suena muy bien.

¿Por qué?

Muchas gracias


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## ukimix

No suena muy bien por la repetición del 'de': "Me alegro *de de*cirte que...", pero es completamente correcta. Suena mejor la opción sin el 'de': "Me alegra decirte que...". Pero las estructuras gramaticales son diferentes

Sujeto en verde, verbo en rojo, complemento del verbo en azul:

_(Yo) Me alegro de decirte que aprobaron tu proyecto
Me alegra decirte que aprobaron tu proyecto _​
La primera oración el sentido del verbo _alegrar _es el de 'sentir alegría' y se lo usa como pronominal (por eso el 'me'). 
En el segundo caso el sentido del verbo es 'causar alegría' y el 'me' funcionar como complemento indirecto. Por ejemplo, compáralo con "Nos alegra decirte que aprobaron..."


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## plsdeluno

Muchas gracias ukimix por tu ayuda. Si cambiamos ''decir'' por ''contar'' ¿Cuál de las dos maneras prefefieres?

1.Me alegro de contarte que .......    2.Me alegra contarte que ....

Muchas gracias


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## ukimix

Para mí siempre es mejor menos palabras para decir lo mismo. La segunda es mi opción.


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## plsdeluno

Muchas gracias ukimix, veo tu punto de vista. 

¡Un saludo!


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## neal41

plsdeluno said:


> Si cambiamos ''decir'' por ''contar'' ¿Cuál de las dos maneras prefefieres?
> 
> 1.Me alegro de contarte que .......    2.Me alegra contarte que ....



Una búsqueda en Google da estos resultados:
"me alegra contarte" 5570
"me alegro de contarte" 8420

Las dos maneras son básicamente iguales.

Me dieron sorpresa los resultados para 'decir'.  No entiendo cómo explicarlos.
"me alegra decirte" 3200
"me alegro de decirte" 75500


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## plsdeluno

Muchas gracias Neal41


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