Qué se le ofrece - How to translate

According to both Rocket Spanish and most other sites, the above sentence means, "How can I help you." An earlier thread about this on this forum discussed how this sentence is structured in the passive voice ("What can you be helped with", perhaps). However, I want to understand how the grammar behind the sentence works. I am going to assume either se or le is a reflexive pronoun and the other is an indirect object pronoun. However, I don't know how to even begin interpreting the phrase. Ofrece is conjugated to the ud./el/ella form. Se and le could refer it "it" and "him or her." But given these words, I cannot come up with a proper sentence. Should I not worry about understanding this till I am a more advanced Spanish learner (I am about half way through Rocket Spanish Premium)? If so, I will just memorize the phrase and not worry about understanding why it is this way. Otherwise, I'd appreciate any help! I tend to like to master content before I move on, so I tend to dislike progressing when I am confused about prior material. Thanks.

Hola otra vez Random, Well, first "le' is not a reflexive pronoun. Those are" me", myself," te" yourself," se" himself, herself, yourself." nos", ourselves," os" yourselves( en España) y" se", themselves, yourselves. "Le " is an indirect object pronoun. I believe it is in the passive voice and I don't think you should worry so much, although I do this myself. I have a lot of books regarding grammar and usage, even one titled "English Grammar for Students of Spanish". But sometimes it's good for for me to just put it into my "Spanish Mind" and internalize it. There are more and more wonderful moments when l hear something and I'm not translating in my mind. I just get it. Poco a poco. Perhaps Cristian Montes de Oca will reply to this. Cristian ayudanos por favor. Saludos, Rich

Hola Random, Well, I did some searching and it seems this is from ofrecerse which is a pronomial verb not a reflexive verb. Huh? I couldn't exactly fathom what I read and I think I'm just going to keep it in my "Spanish Mind" but if you research it and can explain it, that would be great. Saludos, Rich

Reflexive verbs are a subset of pronomial verbs (my understanding anyway). Anyway, I am just going to memorize the phrase and its meaning for now and worry about understanding it once I have a better grasp of the language. Gracias por tu ayuda.

Random, De acuerdo contigo amigo voy a hacer igual. Hasta la próxima y gracias por tu respuesta. Saludos, Rich

Hola! Just to add some add a bit of controversy, i am a native spanish speaker and i have always found this phrase hmmm confusing and even "incorrect", not the phrase per se but the usage...but still us mexicans use it all the time. The essence of the phrase is used to ask someone "how may i help you?" or more specific "is there anything i can offer you?" Another thing i can point out of the phrase is that it is formulated using the formal way (usted vs the informal tu). "¿Qué se le ofrece (a usted)"?would be the complete form vs the "¿Qué te ofrezco (a ti)?" Is the informal form and probably way more understandable than the formal one...litterally "What do i offer you?" Or "What can i offer you" ("Que puedo ofrecerte"?) Anyway excuse any mistakes im using a cell phn! Saludos desde Tijuana, México

Hola Cristian, Como siempre tu respuesta es muy úti. Hace un rato desde que respondes y me preocupaba que no estás aquí todavia. Gracias por tu ayuda y corrigeme mis errores por favor. Saludos, Rich

Hola amigo Rich ! I know! It has been a while since i last visited rocketlanguages, i changed my cellphone equipment and lost a direct link i had on my main (home) page, that the fact that they i didnt had internet access on my work PC kept me away from this forum! Anyway the thing is that im back! And have better internet!... Now i will take the liberty of making some corrections! :$ Como siempre tu respuesta es muy útil. Hace un rato que no respondias y me preocupaba que ya no estuvieras aquí . Gracias por tu ayuda y corrigeme mis errores por favor I must say that your original sentence made total sense we do say "hace un rato que no..." but the "desde" kind of sounded repetitive to me, maybe "ha pasado mucho tiempo desde la ultima vez que respondiste" sounds better but is just another way of.saying it! The rest is .fine Saludos desde Tijuana

Thanks Cristian. "¿Qué te ofrezco (a ti)?" is much easier to understand since the verb is conjugated to the "Yo" form and the sentence makes sense. The more formal version is hard to wrap my head around since the "Yo" form is not used for the verb and the "se" + "le" usage is a little confusing (as opposed to the tü form which only has "te").

Hola Cristian, ¡ Que bueno! Has regresado al foro y gracias por todo amigo. Hasta la proxima. Saludos, Rich

Hola, I had this same confusion about the use of ofrece, and after reading through the comments, it seems that this is something that has just become part of the lexicon without being strictly grammatically correct. Is that about right? Saludos, Rob

Maybe "What is it that (is or may be) offered to you?"

I will ask Diana next time I see her. For now, just another exposure to a Spanish phrase or sentence.