Impersonal "you"
Hello
I was wondering today about the impersonal uses of "you" in English and the way it is translated into Spanish. By impersonal "you" I mean the use of the pronoun "you" to refer to people in general (e.g. "How do you say?" "First you turn on the water", etc." I know that when the impersonal "you" is a subject, you can often use the impersonal "se" (e.g. ¿Cómo se dice?) but I don't know what one would do when the impersonal "you" is being used as an object. For example, I tried to translate the sentence "It teaches you how to be healthy". My best guess was "Le enseña ser sano", but I don't know if that is an acceptable formation...
Any thoughts?
Thank you!
3 Answers
Maxwell:
That form is called to talk in the first or second or third person. The same thing in English.
One cannot take one's eyes off of you. Uno no puede quitar la vista de ti. = uno no puede dejar de verte.
Le enseña a uno a ser sano = It teaches one to be healthy.
Te enseña a ser sano = It teaches you to be healthy.
It teaches you how to be healthy = Te enseña a como ser sano.
Uno is used to convey the impersonal you in the most effective way:
Uno nunca presta atención a las señales de tránsito (meaning no one ever pays attention to traffic signs)
Cuando (tú) quieras que te presten atención es necesario que (tú) alces la voz. When one wants to be paid attention to, sometimes (one) needs to raise his/her voice.
Alternative: Cuando uno quiera que le presten atención es necesario que uno alce la voz.
I hope this helps!
Let's wait for the final word from a native speaker, but the conclusion that I seem to have come to about this type of impersonal "you" is that it depends on if you're using everyday talk or more formal speech. I've seen countless times people use, as in your example, sentences like te enseña a ser sano, but in an informal context. If you want to be more formal, you could use the equivalent of "it teaches one to be healthy," which is le enseña a uno a ser sano.
