---------"se"-----------
"el pelo se peinado por la mujer" - "el pelo es peinado por la mujer".. do they have the same meaning? is the first sentence correct? i am trying to practice the word "se" because i am pretty confused because "se" has plenty of uses.
2 Answers
"Se" is a very hard concept for the majority of Spanish learners, and there are many different forms (la se impersonal, la se recíproca, etc). In your case it looks like you are referring to is distinguishing between the passive voice with "ser" (la voz pasiva con ser) and la voz pasiva refleja. The main difference is in the passive construction con "ser", although the agent is not always mentioned, its presence is always implied. On the other hand, in the passive reflexive construction there is no presence of an agent. In reality the passive voice with "ser" is seldom used in Spanish. In sentences like "Bodas de Sangre fue escrito por Federico García Lorca". Sentences where the agent is key to the sentence. In sentences where the agent is not important it sounds much better to use the passive reflexive construction. Por ejemplo: "La taza se rompió" sounds much, much better than "La taza fue rota"
Here, it sounds like se is being used to create a passive statement. "The hair was combed." But it's used improperly from what I can see. To use "se" to create a passive statement, se must be combined with an appropriately conjugated third-person verb.
Perhaps "el pelo se peinó" or such?
EDIT: Here's the URL for the lesson on impersonal and passive se. Lesson 3.12
