Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Passive sentences whose subject is not a person

Particularly when the subject is not a person, the Spanish verb is used

reflexively with se, and agrees with its subject:

Se construyó la casa en diez meses.

The house was built in ten months.

Se podan las rosas en primavera.

Roses are pruned in spring.

Note: Although it is sometimes found, it is considered incorrect to use the above

construction with porto introduce an agent or ‘doer’, e.g. ×La casa se compró por

los Martínez×. Instead, use a true passive construction as in 15.1.2: La casa fue

comprada por los Martínez‘The house was bought by the Martínezes’.

Passive sentences involving an indirect object

In cases where an indirect object is involved, Spanish uses a reflexive

construction. As in 15.2.1, the Spanish verb is used reflexively in the 3rd

person with se, and agrees with its subject:

Se le concedió a María una beca.

María was awarded a scholarship.

Se le devolverán las muestras.

The samples will be returned to him.

Passive sentences whose subject is a person

A special use of the reflexive pronoun se is often found in cases where the

subject of the sentence in English is a person. The reason is that the use of

seas in 15.2.1, but with a personal subject, can be interpreted as having a

true reflexive or reciprocal meaning (see 14.2 and 14.3), rather than an

intended passive sense, e.g. se miran‘they look at themselves’ or ‘one

another’.

To avoid this, the verb is still used with sebut in the 3rd person singular

only. Persons being acted upon are introduced as the verb’s direct object,

which must bepreceded by the personal a:

Se registra a todos los que entren.

All who come in are searched.

15.2.3

15.2.2

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Alternatives

to passive

constructions

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