Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Using an indeterminate 3rd person plural active verb

Where no agent or ‘doer’ is expressed it may be possible, if the context

permits it, to use an active verb whose subject is an indeterminate 3rd

person plural (‘they’, ‘people’):

Lo nombraron director.

He was appointed director.

Replacing a passive construction when using an already

reflexive verb

When using a reflexive verb such as darse cuenta ‘to realize’, it is not

possible to add a second reflexive pronoun seto create a passive construc-

tion. It is possible, however, to convert the sentence to an active

construction using uno‘one’ or la gente ‘people’:

Uno no se da cuenta de su importancia.

Its importance is not realized.

La gente se olvida pronto de cantantes como él.

Singers like him are soon forgotten.

15.2.6

(^1111) 15.2.5
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

Alternatives

to passive

constructions

181