# Freddy Fender's grammatical puzzler

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddy-fenders-grammatical-puzzler/728689>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 24, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddy-fenders-grammatical-puzzler/728689 "2015-08-24T03:57:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddy-fenders-grammatical-puzzler/728689/1 "2015-08-24T03:57:00Z")

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In Fender’s song “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” the opening verse in English concludes with:

_But if he ever breaks your heart  
If a teardrop should ever start  
I’ll be there Before the Next Teardrop Falls._

In the Spanish second verse, Fender makes it scan with:

_Pero si te hace llorar  
A mi me puedes hablar  
Y estaré contigo cuando triste\_estás._

What kind of idiom is _“A mi me…”?_ I never found that in my Spanish dictionary or textbook. 😕

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**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddy-fenders-grammatical-puzzler/728689/2 "2015-08-24T04:09:48Z")

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In “A mi, me puedes” the “A mi” is just for emphasis. Literally it’s something like “To me, to me you can talk”.

The whole verse is: “But if it/he makes you cry, To me, you can talk to me, and I will be with you when you are sad”.