Darse cuenta - To notice & to realize

Darse cuenta is a very common Spanish expression which has two different ways of being translated into English: to notice and to realize. So this is easy for you, when you want to say either of those verbs, just use the proper way of darse cuenta. Let’s see some examples:

Ella no se dio cuenta de que hacía ruido

¿Te das cuenta de lo tarde que es?

Ayer me di cuenta de que tenía que devolver estos libros a la biblioteca.

How to construct it:

(Subject) + Personal Complement + Conjugated DAR + …

The personal complement depends on the subject:

Yo	Tú	Él/Ella	Nosotros	Vosotros	Ellos/Ellas
Me	Te	Se	Nos	Os	Se

Then you have to conjugate the verb DAR according to the person and the time you need. Usually it is followed by the preposition DE; if you are using another verb (like in the first and third examples) you need one QUE.

If you are using a negative, you just need to add NO in between the subject and the personal complement:

Yo no me doy cuenta de que ronco

La gente no se dio cuenta de que el ponche no tenía alcohol

When to use it:

It is a very common expression and you can use it in every context, even in the most formal ones.

Possible mistakes:

Don’t forget to use the personal complement, dar cuentas (even when it is a plural) has a different meaning: it is used when you have to explain something to your boss or any other authority.

Mirar a los ojos - To look in the eye

Mirar a los ojos is a tricky Spanish expression which means Look in the eye. They are both very similar, but you must be careful when using it, because in English eye is singular, but in Spanish ojos is a plural. Let’s see an example:

Tú le estabas mirando a los ojos / They were looking in the eye

You cannot say:

Tú le estabas mirando al ojo

Because that not makes any sense and people will probably start laughing.

How to construct it

(Subject) + Personal Complement + Conjugated Verb + a los ojos

The subject is in brackets since you can omit it, if you feel like it. Personal complements depends on the person whose eyes are being looked and they are: me – te – le/se – nos – os – les/se; as you can see there are two options for the 3^rd person: you have to use always le or les unless the person who is being looked is also looking to the person who is looking at it. Examples:

Él le miraba a los ojos – a person A is looking to another person B.

Él se miraba a los ojos – a person A is looking to his own eyes (A looks A).

Ellos les miran a los ojos – one group A is looking to other group B’s eyes.

Ellos se miran a los ojos – there are two groups of people A and B and they are looking ones to the others.

After reading this two last examples, you may say that it is almost impossible to look someone in the eye who is not looking you back in the eye, but in Spanish is important to know who had the idea to look into the other’s eyes.