Se dire

Question

Bonjour! I am perplexed, in the following sentence "On se disait pas le temps, pas envie, pas longtemps" Is "se" functioning as a direct or indirect object? I am thinking direct "We told ourselves"...?

Accepted Answer

Hi David, 
It wasn't a song I knew so I had to look it up.
I would say that as it is in the imparfait that my English translation would be -
We were telling ourselves , we don't have the time, the inclination not for long 
It is always difficult to translate lyrics as you lose the rhythm...
The verb se dire is reflexive and can be to say to each other, to tell oneself , to be said ,  etc .
Hope this helps!

Answer

Hi David,Dire is transitive, but I think indirect     --  "to say to someone"Or direct to say something TO someoneSo "We said TO ourselves ......."Indirect via the preposition "to"Hope this helps.Jim

Answer

Hi David,
 Can you say where you saw this sentence?

Answer

Thank you for your responses Jim and Cécile - it is the opening line of the song "J'aimerais danser" by Lunis. Similarly, later in the song it says "Et moi, je me disais: ça va passer/ Et moi, je me disais: oublie tout".

The confusion for me comes when I try to think how to best translate this:

a. We told ourselves/I told myself makes me think se/me is a direct object

b. We said to ourselves/ I said to myself makes me think se/me is an indirect object

Answer

Je me dise -- I am telling myself. The reflexive pronoun functions as the indirect object of the verb dire.