Se impersonal o pasivo

Question

En la Oracion: Se dice que los aviones de Iberia son grandes porque se pone el verbo decir en 3ra persona singular? porque no se escribe: se dicen que los aviones de Iberia son grandes?

gracias

Answer 1

In my old Spanish book, it has "Se dice que" translated as "They/People say that.."; it can also be "It is said that..." There's no real need for it to be plural; it's unrelated to "los aviones". I would only use "se dicen" if there were a plural noun following it. Por ej.: Se dicen los niños que >> It is said by (the) children that...|The children say that... or something like that. I wish I could explain more clearly.

Actually, "the children say" would be "los niños dicen" and "it is said by (the) children would be "Se dice/es dicho por los niños que..." But you can't say "se dicen los niños", unless children tell stuff to each other: (see next comment) - NanakaTsípekua, Feb 17, 2012

"Los niños se dicen (in this I think the word cuentan would be better) historias de terror." - NanakaTsípekua, Feb 17, 2012

Ok, thanks for the correction. But how would you say it passively? - Goldie_Miel, Feb 17, 2012

Es dicho por los niños / Se dicen los niños...¿no es lo mismo? - Goldie_Miel, Feb 17, 2012

No, it's not "Es dicho por los niños" ="It's said by (the) children" "Se dicen los niños que..." ="The children tell (to each other or to themselves) that..." ... better now? - NanakaTsípekua, Feb 17, 2012

Yes, somewhat. Thanks. So there's no other way to say "It is said by the children" except "Es dicho por los niños"? - Goldie_Miel, Feb 17, 2012

Well... "Los niños dicen que...." means the same, but i's not passive. - NanakaTsípekua, Feb 17, 2012

Right, I was looking for something passive. That's ok. Thank you for clearing that up :o) - Goldie_Miel, Feb 17, 2012

Answer 2

You can't say "Se dicen que los aviones de Iberia son grandes" because the plural in dicen wouldn't refer to the planes, but to the subject that says they are big.

Sí, decir está en tercera de singular porque es impersonal. The other way to make it impersonal is Dicen (you don't need to add ellos -ellos dicen- or people. -la gente dice. but you can if you want) Let's think about the verb contar, which I like better for some cases, like when you talk about a legend:

Se dice/se cuenta que los chaneques son muy traviesos. (It's said that...)

Dicen/Cuentan que los chaneques son muy traviesos. (They)Say that...

La gente dice/cuenta que los chaneques son muy traviesos. (People say that...)

You can also say:

Ha sido dicho/Se ha dicho.... que los chaneques son muy traviesos. (It´s been said that...) If you talk about a single "chaneque" the verb remains the same:

Se dice/dicen/ or cuentan... etc.. que el chaneque se robó una vaca.

You can only use se dicen/ se cuentan when the next part of the sentence is told by a plural subject:

"(Ellos) se cuentan sus anécdotas con los chaneques" (They tell each other or they tell to the others their anecdotes with the chaneques)

There's a group of verbs that doesn't require to be adapted to plural, (they can't be adapted) because they are always impersonal. These verbs are the metheorological verbs and they are alway impersonal because no one does them, they just occur.

"Llueve"- "It rains" (But you can't say "Eso llueve", only "llueve")

"Nieva"- "It snows" and so on...

(Of course, you could say "llueve chocolate" or "Está lloviendo chocolate" (It´s raining chocolate) or "Llueven hombres" (It´s raining men) xD but llueven would refer to chocolate or men, not to the person that is causing chocolate or men to rain, because there is no person...)

Saludos Michoacanos!