Periphrastic Verb Phrases in Spanish:

In this phrase, the boy does not walk. He isn't necessarily going anywhere. The
speaker of the sentence has a pejorative concept of what the boy is doing: messing with
people. Andar is modifying the meaning of meterse. You could also say this phrase as in
sentence 2, without the verb andar, but it loses the displeasure on the part of the speaker:
2. Este chico se mete con la gente.
This boy (reflexive) messes with people.
In fact, sentence 2, while not really eloquent due to the more colloquial usage of
meterse (which can also mean to put or to place, and can itself be used periphrastically)
would probably be more acceptable in a rigid social environment than sentence 1. The
use of andar in periphrastic phrases is very colloquial. The change in meaning is evident
from the examples above. In sentence 1, we can certainly note that the meaning of andar
is not to walk, although in nonnal circumstances, and in all social environments, andar
means to walk. Interestingly enough, however, this verb is commonly used in many
colloquial expressions. For instance, a young Colombian friend of mine once used the
expreSSiOn:
3. Esta nina y yo, andamos muy bien.
Literally: This girl and I, we walk very well.
This girl and 1 get along really well.
Andar in the you infonna1 command fonn is often used as an exclamation that
something another speaker said or did is ridiculous, questionable, or not beJieved at all.
A professor in Spain once said to me, incredulously because I was carrying a tiny
bilingual dictionary (which she deemed inadequate):
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