A person who does not realize that they are being followed
The notion of noticing refers to realizing something . When someone notices an issue , they notice it and become aware of its existence.
The preposition "de" is obligatory
It is important to mention that, as explained by the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), the verb percatar should always be used with the preposition of . It is even important not to exclude the preposition in oral language, since otherwise we incur queism .
A similar situation occurs with other verbs, such as find out and inform , although with certain differences. Although the first must always be followed by the preposition of , like percatarse , the verb inform admits both possibilities. Despite the flexibility, in Spain it is more common to say inform that , while in Latin America, inform that .
For these and other verbs, there is a trick that allows us to quickly figure out whether we should use the preposition de , even if we are not aware of the grammatical rules. In short, it consists of replacing everything that follows the verb and preposition with the word "this"; The result that seems most natural and easy to understand will surely be the correct one from an academic point of view .
Let's put the trick just described in a practical example. If we have to say "As soon as I noticed that I was being followed I immediately called the police" but we have doubts regarding the obligatory nature of the preposition of , it is enough to say out loud "I noticed this " and "I noticed this « . Thanks to this reduction of content , we will undoubtedly recognize the second option as the only valid one.
Some examples
Let's look at some sentences with the term notice : "The security guard could notice that there was someone inside the business since he noticed that a window was open" , "Unfortunately I did not realize that someone was putting their hand in my pocket." ” , “If we analyze the statistics , we can see the increase in cases in the last six months” .
Suppose a car engine is not running well . However, it takes several days before the driver discovers there is a problem. This subject managed to notice the failure when he discovered several oil stains under the vehicle. This means that he became aware of the problem only when he saw the loss of fluid.
Take the case of a teenager who starts skipping school without telling his parents . The young man, upon leaving his house, heads towards a park and never enters school. Then he returns home and lies about what he did throughout the day. Her mother knows of the deception when she receives a phone call from the rector of the educational establishment asking the reason for the absences: in this way, the woman was able to realize the reality .
Seeing the open window allowed him to notice the intrusion
Notice, not notice
The RAE dictionary points out that in the past it was possible to use the verb percatar as a synonym for "perceive, notice or warn", followed by a complement , meaning that it was a transitive verb. However, this meaning has fallen into disuse, and is currently used as a pronominal verb.
As such, we must start from its infinitive ( percatar ) and add the reflexive pronoun corresponding to the person of the subject ( me, te, se, nos u os ). Thanks to this suffix, the verb affects the subject directly. Let's look at a more graphic example: "I pinched myself" ; The action is carried out by the subject on himself. Therefore, we cannot "notice someone," but we always "notice" (ourselves) something .