Casi no se lo reconoce

Question

Why is it "se lo reconoce". I think it says "I almost didn't recognize him" but reconocer(se) is not in past tense here, and it's in third person tense. Seems like it should be "casi no lo reconocí". It almost looks like "he almost doesn't resemble himself". Gracias.

Answer 1

Seems like the same as "Casi no lo reconocí" in meaning though for the most part.

Except for the sentence does not say who could almost not recognize him, like in a passive. That is what that 'se' is doing there: avoiding or hiding an explicit person to perform the action. Another way to look at this is "One can barely recognize him".

Answer 2

Is it the passive voice - he's nearly unrecognizable?

I think passive indicates a definite person, doesn't it? Se me cayó mi refresco. My soda fell. I thought impersonal was something different here. - jeezzle, Nov 1, 2010

Answer 3

I seem to be chasing Lazarus around tonight. Yes, it's impersonal se. "One can hardly recognize him" or, in American, "You can't hardly recognize him."

Impersonal se, but it's not passive because that would indicate a user, that had some level of burden removed from him, or something like that, right? No se te olvides. Don't "let" yourself forget? Passive? Gracias. - jeezzle, Nov 1, 2010

Hmm. Don't go all grammatical on me. There's no burden removal involved. It's just using the impersonal form, "One ..." - KevinB, Nov 1, 2010

Answer 4

I think this a case of transitive VS pronomial. (although I'm reaching outside my bounds with this grammar stuff). Transitive - to recognize. Pronomial - to be recognized. Casi no se lo reconoce. He almost isn't recognized. (recognizable?). Seems like the same as "Casi no lo reconocí" in meaning though for the most part.