¿Y se animará Sebastián Estebanez a comer cucarachas?

Will Sebastian Estebanez dare to eat cockroaches?

Caption 1, Factor Fobia - Cucarachas - Part 2

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

In Argentina, the reflexive verb animarse is frequently used to mean "to dare," as we see throughout our Factor Fobia series.

¿Se animará o no se animará Sebastián Estebanez en el Factor Fobia?

Will Sebastian Estebanez dare or not dare in Fear Factor?

Caption 26, Factor Fobia - Cucarachas - Part 2

 Play Caption

Animarse a más
Dare for more (Pepsi slogan)

¿Te animás a saltar desde el puente?
Do you dare jump from the bridge?

Some parts of the Spanish speaking world are less likely to use animarse when they want to speak of "daring", but would more likely be using another reflexive verb, atreverse.

For example Marley could have equally well have said:

¿Se atreverá Sebastián Estebanez a comer cucarachas?
Will Sebastian Estebanez dare to eat cockroaches?

Here's an interesting headline we found:
¿Se atreverá alguien a comprar Youtube?
Will someone dare to buy Youtube?
(The answer to that is now clear.)
 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Another use of animarse found throughout most of the the Spanish-speaking world is in the sense of infusing oneself with ánimo (spirit, life, energy). This can mean cheering oneself up or gaining courage/motivation.

¡Animate! Vamos a la fiesta.
Cheer up! Let's go to the party.

Al final me animé a lanzarme al agua helada.
In the end I got up the courage to jump into the freezing water.

Ambos lo deseábamos, pero alguien tenía que animarse y decirlo.

We both wanted it, but someone had to have the guts and say it.

Captions 35-36, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 2 - Part 7

 Play Caption