4.8 How to express “to become” and “to realize” in Spanish

Note: This section’s grammar involves some verbs that are not only reflexive, but also frequently (not exclusively) used with the preterite tense.

How to express “to become” en español

Some verbs in Spanish are used reflexively and imply transformations or changes; these verbs are not interchangeable!  Note the situations described below for each verb:

1.  Ponerse
(sudden, physical or emotional change, effortless, almost always a person)
Examples:

• Se pone rojo cuando le preguntan su edad. (She blushes when they ask her age.)
• Se puso enfermo después de trasnochar demasiado. (He got sick after staying up all night too often.)

2.  Volverse
(sudden and extreme transformation, emotional/physical/situational, involuntary change;
doesn’t have to be a person)
Examples:

• Mi perro se vuelve loco con el olor a comida. (My dog goes crazy with the smell of food.)
• La madre se volvió un ogro cuando trataron de hacerle daño a sus hijos. (The mother turned into an ogress when they tried to harm her children.)
• La situación se volvió peligrosa cuando empezó a nevar y la temperatura bajó rápidamente. (The situation got dangerous when it started to snow and the temperature dropped quickly.)

3.  Hacerse       |   Pasar a ser      |   Llegar a ser
(long term, requires an effort; these are usually used in the past when the action is completed)
Examples:

• Se hizo abogada después de mucho trabajo.  (She became a lawyer after working hard.)
• Llegó a ser muy famoso en su tiempo.  (He became very famous in his time.)
• Pasó a ser el heredero de toda la fortuna. (He became the heir to the whole fortune.)

How to express “to realize” en español 

 1.   Darse cuenta 

This is often translated into English as “to realize”, meaning “to find out” or “to know for the first time”.
When followed by a noun or an infinitive use “darse cuenta de”.
When followed by a conjugated verb, standard Spanish uses “darse cuenta que”, but it’s possible to say “darse cuenta de que”.
Examples:

• Las personas que escuchan música con audífonos en el metro no se dan cuenta de lo fuerte que es el sonido. (The people who listen to music on headphones on the subway don’t realize how loud the sound is.)
• Dejé mi pasaporte en el hotel y solo me di cuenta del error cuando llegué al aeropuerto. (I left my passport in the hotel and only realized my error when I got to the airport.)

👀 ¡OJO! There is a related false cognate that English speakers will need to be careful of—“realizar” actually means “to make real” or “to achieve”.