Can you use ser as a helping verb?

Question

El texto está escrito en clave para que no sean descubiertos.

The text is written in code so as not to be discovered.

I do not understand the translation of the above sentence. Is the use of ser "sean" stand alone or is it used as a helping verb with discovered "to be discovered"? I am not very far along on my education but I really enjoy learning this language. I just finished my college course of Spanish 1 and will start Spanish 2 later this week.

Gracias!

Answer 1

You're correct - that's called passive voice. Any time the subject of a sentence isn't clear, there's a very obvious red flag: a version of the word ser.

For example:

En la noche, cuando caminaba a mi casa, fui asaltado. At night, when I was walking home, I was assaulted.

"I was" = past tense of "to be" or, ser. You don't know by whom, so it's left in passive voice. (Active voice would be: "A ____ assaulted me." There's no form of "to be" in that construction.)

Now, it's also in a subjunctive tense (sean, not son) because of the "para que" which usually translates as "in order to" or "so that".

If you're not familiar with subjunctive tense, I'd highly recommend reading about it - it's very common. We don't use it much in English, but it's prevalent in Spanish.

Here's an example:

Compre un nuevo celular para que pueda llamarle a mi mama en cualquier momento. I bought a new cell phone so that I can call my mom at any time.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Even though the overall explanation was right, I´d like to add a few observations.

• Subjuntive is not a verb tense. it´s a verb mood used in dependent clauses to express wishes, emotion, possibility, judgment, commands, opinions or statements that are contrary to fact at present.

• Assaulted in Spanish means agredido. Asaltado is ´to be robbed´.

• ¨Compre un nuevo celular para que pueda llamarle a mi mama en cualquier momento¨ It means that the cellphone will call her by itself. The sentence should be ¨Compré un nuevo celular para poder llamar a mi mamá en cualquier momento¨, which is neither in passive voice nor in subjunctive mood..

• Anothe examples:

Active voice ¨José me echó a patadas del foro¨. Passive voice: ´Fui echado a patadas del foro (por José).´

Indicative mood : ¨Hoy es miércoles¨. Subjunctive mood: ¨(Quisiera que) hoy fuera miércoles.¨

Good catches - thanks for the clarification! - skygoneblue, Jan 13, 2010