Impersonal Se (Passive Voice)

Impersonal “se” (passive voice)

In English, you'll hear statements like

 "You shouldn't smoke in a hospital"  "They say she is very pretty"  "One never knows when he will turn up."

These are "impersonal expressions". In other words, we don't really have anyone specific in mind when we say "They say..." or "One" or " You". We mean people in general. This is what we mean by "impersonal".

Spanish has a slightly different format for expressing this Impersonal voice. Spanish adds the pronoun se in front of verbs to make general statements. Impersonal voice using se will use a singular verb since the se can be replaced by uno ("one").

Here are some examples:

How does one say "icecream" in Italian? ¿Cómo se dice "helado" en italiano?

You say (one says) "gelato". Se dice "gelato".

How do you spell "Valencia"? ¿Cómo se escribe "Valencia"?

Notice that the Plural Impersonal (unknown "they") does not use the se :

They say that vegetarian pizza is Dicen que la pizza vegetariana es healthy. saludosa.

Abren las tiendas a las nueve de la They open the stores at 9:00am. mañana.

The "Passive se" is what we call in English "the passive voice".

An Active voice is when you have a subject doing something with an active verb. In English a Passive voice has an object having something done to it with or without an identified subject. The Passive Voice in English uses a form of "to Be" with a Past Participle.

Let's look at some examples in English:

An Active Voice Construction A Passive Voice Construction

Sra. Verde teaches me Spanish. Spanish is taught to me (by Sra. Verde)

I purchased the dress. The dress was purchased (by me)

I drove my father's new car. My father's new car was driven (by me)

The Passive Voice in Spanish is normally formed by using se + the third person singular or plural conjugation of a verb, similar to what we did with the Impersonal se. In Spanish there is not a subject - identified or not!

Let's look at some examples in Spanish and English:

An Active Voice Construction A Passive Voice Construction

Los dependientes del almacén Spanish Se habla ruso en el mercado. hablan ruso.

The department store clerks Russian is spoken in the shopping English speak Russian. center.

David escribe el libro en Spanish Se escribe el libro en italiano. italiano.

David is writing the book in English The book is written in Italian. Italian.

La heladería vende una gran Se vende una gran cantidad de Spanish cantidad de helado. helado.

The ice cream store sells a large A large quantity of ice cream is English quantity of ice cream. sold.

La heladería vende una gran Spanish Se comió la torta. cantidad de helado.. English My friends ate the cake. The cake was eaten.

Los choferes pagan las multas los Spanish Se pagan las multas los lunes. lunes.

English Drivers pay the fines on Mondays. The fines are paid on Mondays.