Se Habla(mos)?

Question

Let me preface this by stating that my grammar is horrible.

While driving around, I often notice signs on businesses stating, "Se Habla Español". I loosely translate this as, "We speak Spanish". However, when I think about it, doesn't it really mean something more like, "It speaks Spanish to you"? Shouldn't it actually be, "Se Hablamos Español"?

I thank you in advance for any and all answers.

Answer 1

"Se Habla Español" is what you see most on these signs. It is passive voice and means "Spanish is spoken." In this particular case, se indicates passive voice.

"Hablamos Español" is occasionally seen on signs and means "We speak Spanish." This is active voice and se is not necessary.

Answer 2

Great question. This is called the "Impersonal Se" and there are many lessons explaining its use.

Here's one lesson.

Impersonal expressions are used when the subject of a verb is unspecified (but is human). They are mostly used to make general statements and to express rules.

The term is not that important, but generally this "se" is considered passive reflexive instead of impersonal. - lazarus1907, Jan 6, 2011

Why am I so weak? I read this and yet all I see is "blah, blah, blah." No wonder why my grammar is so bad. I look forward to the day that I look at this and say to myself, "Wow how could you not have understood that?" Thanks for the link. - djnotsophat, Jan 6, 2011

Answer 3

Good question,I'm sorry I don't know for sure .I believe that it translates loosely to "Spanish is spoken here."(Ionly know thats the point they are trying to make). I'll watch this post to learn the correct answer.

Your guess was correct. - lazarus1907, Jan 6, 2011

Answer 4

It means literally: "is spoken Spanish."

In better English: "Spanish is spoken."

But, in English, it is more common to put, "We speak Spanish" on our signs, so that would be a valid translation as well even though it doesn't literally mean that.