Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Se vio a las chicas en la calle.

The girls were seen in the street.

Se consultó a los autores del artículo.

The authors of the article were consulted.

When the object is a pronoun rather than a noun it is placed in the normal

manner (see 8.5.3). However, it is usual to use leor lesas the masculine

direct object pronoun (rather than loor los):

Se nos acusó. We were accused.

Se le/les acusó. He was accused./They were accused.

Note: Where there is no danger of ambiguity from using a reflexive verb with a

personal subject, for example in notices or advertisements, a straightforward

reflexive construction is used as for inanimate subjects: Se busca niñera‘Nanny

wanted’, Se necesitan cocineros‘Cooks needed’.

Converting a passive construction into an active one

Overuse of passive constructions in Spanish can be avoided, particularly in

informal speech, by converting an English passive construction into an

active one in Spanish:

Un colega me entregó los archivos.

I was handed the files by a colleague.

Sus amigas no la invitaron.

She was not invited by her friends.

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Passive
constructions

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Understanding se

For practical purposes, it may be helpful to understand that sein the

above construction functions as if it were an indefinite or unspecific

subject of a singular active verb, e.g. Se le interrogó‘Someone ques-

tioned him’.