What is "Como se dice" in English?

Question

I heard Paralee Whitmire mentioned that in a lesson. Is "dice" the verb? What is its infinitive form? Can anyone please explain how that phrase is formed? What does "se" mean?

Sorry for too much asking. ¡Gracias!

I'm sorry! It should be "cómo". I forgot my basic accents! - ainimountei, Apr 17, 2011

Answer 1

It is passive construction, using the pronoun "se". Chileno's translation are correct and consistent with the fact that "Cómo se dice" is passive since they are also in passive voice (except for the second one), but the most common equivalent in English is "How do you say ____?"

You can read more about passive construction in the Reference section of this website, but I advice you to leave it for now and accept it as it is 'til you learn more about the basics, given that you haven't even encountered the indicative form of decir (to say).

I would say it's an impersonal construction rather than a passive one, what do u think? - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 19, 2013

Answer 2

How it is said?

How do you pronounce it?

How is it pronounced?

etc

How do you say - alkaiz, Apr 17, 2011

"Cómo se dice" is passive - "How do you say" is active. :) - ian-hill, Oct 19, 2013

Chileno - "How IS IT said?" is correct - it is a question so the word order is changed. - ian-hill, Oct 19, 2013

right... - chileno, Oct 19, 2013

If you're trying to translate then the meaning is more important the a parallel construction, so "how do you say?" is preferred. - Vida_de_Scott, Oct 20, 2013

Answer 3

The infinitive is decir so as you can see it's a stem changing verb (e to I).

The 'se' is forming an impersonal construction, a bit like our English, 'how does one ...?' which allows us to talk about 'someone' doing something without being specific.

A little more on the impersonal 'se' below.

So literally what it means is ..

Cómo = how

Se = does one

Dice = say

'Se' used in impersonal constructions

For impersonal expressions to indicate that people in general, or no person in particular, performs the action, without stating who's doing the action of the verb, you can use the impersonal 'se' construction. It's similar to the impersonal English expressions 'one', 'you' (without any particular 'you' in mind) or 'they' (without any particular 'they' in mind).

One can always buy fresh vegetables at the local market.

They say he's really successful now.

You can take a bus to the city from that shopping centre.

In Spanish impersonal constructions the verb is always in 3rd person singular, and there is no grammatical subject, but there can be objects.

¿Se puede nadar en el mar aquí?

Can you swim in the sea here? / Can one swim in the sea here?

Se dice que hay cocodrilos en el mar aquí.

They say that there are crocodiles in the sea here.

Answer 4

I am going to get you