gravarse

Gravarse is a form that appears as the reflexive of gravar or grabar, but it is not considered standard in modern Spanish. The more common verbs are gravar and grabar, depending on the meaning, and grabarse is the standard reflexive form when referring to recording oneself. Because gravarse is rarely used or widely accepted, it is typically viewed as a nonstandard variant or a misspelling of grabarse.

Etymology and meanings. The verb gravar originates from the Latin gravare, related to weight or burden, and in Spanish it has multiple senses: to engrave or carve on a surface, to place a tax or burden on someone, and, in contemporary usage, to record audio or video (primarily with the form grabar). The reflexive gravarse, when encountered, would be understood only insofar as it could be interpreted as a nonstandard reflexive of gravar or grabar, but it does not establish a distinct meaning of its own in authoritative dictionaries.

Usage notes. In standard Spanish, use gravar when referring to engraving or burdening with a tax (no reflexive). Use grabar when talking about recording sounds, images, or videos (and use the reflexive grabarse to mean “record oneself,” as in me grabé un video). If you encounter gravarse in the wild, it is usually a typographical error or a regional variant that should be replaced with grabarse or gravar/grabar according to the intended sense.

Examples:

- Grabar: voy a grabar un podcast mañana.

- Grabarse (reflexive, recording oneself): me voy a grabar un video para el curso.

- Gravar: las leyes buscan gravar a las grandes fortunas.

See also gravar, grabar, grabación.