why is se used here?

Question

Se nos educó baja la idea de que el decir “no” a un sentimiento adverso era descortés y de mala educación. Gracias

i'm sure you'll soon get a beter answer than mine, andy. - annierats, Jan 14, 2012

Answer 1

I don't know enough terminology to get technical here, but I'll give an explanation that hopefully you will find satisfying.

In Spanish sometimes you want to say something is done by some generic person.

Like when we say "Spanish is spoken here" by saying se habla español.

In this case the sentence is saying "we are educated" but a more word for word translation would be "they teach us."

So you have se (the generic person or people) and nos (us) to describe both the action being performed and the person to whom this action is performed.

Se nos educó - it is taught to us (by someone)

Some examples I have seen of this I can think of are...

Esto se usa para. - This is used for...

Se dice que - It is said that (or they say that)

Se habla - It is spoken (they speak)

And some random examples that might be wrong...

Se imagina que - it is imagined that...

Se demostró que - it was proven that...

Technically I suppose it is "it was taught to us" since it is educó and not educa, but I think "is" sounds better in English. - Fredbong, Jan 14, 2012

I would have said We were taught that... isn't it proper English? I think it conveys perfectly the idea. - cogumela, Jan 14, 2012

Sí Cogumela, "we were taught that" works as well. Usually in a sentence like "Since we were children we were taught that" - Fredbong, Jan 14, 2012

Answer 2

The ' el decir no a.. ' has become a fixed part of the sentence, translating soemthig lke 'the saying of no'. As for the se, one of the good gramaticans onsite will probably explain it better than I can.

Answer 3

In answer to your second question, andy, you should see this former posting by montenegro. You may also find this article enlightening. (Particularly the bottom part of the article.)

Annierats is correct in her statement. In some cases the el is optional and the use is inferred, but in this case it is a well known phrase and so el should be used if you don't want to seem unfamiliar with the language.

In this case el and the infinitive decir are used in conjunction to form a noun.

I'm not sure there is anyway to translate this to English with the same mentality.

In English we would probably use an ING ending to communicate this concept, as Annie did in her translation of that section.

Answer 4

Also, why is it el decire and not just decir?