Construcciones con se / Constructions with se
CONSTRUCCIONES CON SE
In a previous chapter, we have seen se as a reflexive verb pronoun. Se can be used to talk about activities for the subject in general, that it is not specific or it is unknown. We will use the construction of such will be se + verb construction. Se sentence construction in the passive voice, when the subject is unknown the verb will be in the 3rd person singular (él/ell/usted), but if if refers to a plural noun, then the verb will be in the plural third person form (ellos/ellas/ustedes).
Examples
Unknown Person
Se prohíbe fumar. (Smoking is prohibited)
Passive Voice
Se vende camisa Hawaiyana. (Hawaian shirts are sold here)
Se venden camisas de traje. (Dress shirts are sold here)
There is also another type of construction with se, where the direct object of the sentence becomes the subject, and it agrees with the verb. You will use this type of sentence when something unplanned happens (breaking something, forgetting something, etc). The verbs are only conjugated in the third person singular or plural.
The most common verbs with these types of sentences are: caer (to fail/drop), dañar (to damage); olvidar (to forget), perder (to lose); quedar (to be left behind), romper (to break).
In order to create a “se sentence”, you use the following:
Construcions of Se
| Passive Voice
Se |
Indirect Object Pronoun
Me, te, le , nos, os , les
|
Verb
Quedó Cayó Dañó Rompieron Olvidaron perdieron
|
Subject
La taza La receta El televisión Las llaves Los libros |
Direct Object Becoming the Subject
Se te rompió la televisión. (Your television broke)
Se me olvidaron los libros. (I forgot my books)
Notice that the verb is not conjugated according to the indirect pronoun, but the subject.
PRÁCTICA
Now that you have learned about the constructions of se, let’s practice.
Ejercicio 1
Ejercicio 2
Ejercicio 3
Ejercicio 4
Licensing and Attribution:
Gramática content on this page was remixed from Español por el mundo by Gemma Morawski and Ani Alcocer, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Adaptations include voice pronunciations provided by Gemma Morawski and openly-licensed images throughout the H5P flashcards attributed on each card via the H5P editing dashboard and forvo.com . Further adaptations include practice activities created by Gemma Morawski via H5p. Activities were remixed from the following sites;
This page titled 4.2.5.1: Práctica- “Se” impersonal y “se” accidental is shared under a CC BY-NC license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by M. Barrio De Mendoza, K Gutiérrez, H.Ho, C. Lin, & A Stere Lugo (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative) .