the usage of se?
Poco a poco "se" aprende. Cuando tengas dudas me preguntas.
what the heck is se here? when can I use it in a proper way? How do you say "se" in English grammar? Gracias a todos!
4 Answers
Se here is referred to as impersonal only because there is no indicated subject. If there were a subject such as "la vida", then it becomes pasive voice: Little by little life is learned.
Poco a poco se aprende translated to English would have to be: Little by little one learns, but then in Spanish this English variant becomes Poco a poco uno aprende. So one should not rely too much on direct translations.
We even say poco a poco aprendes (we can use tú as "you in general" even while we hold a conversation in Usted because this is impersonal).
I suggest you forget about English grammar; it doesn´t have se. All languages have their own workings and structures.
I always look forward to reading and studying Julian's excellent answers. Us English speakers always want to cling to the comfort of English grammar when trying to understand Spanish. Some times it doesn't help.
I will just try to say the same thing in a little more verbose manor... 
Silly as it sounds the sign "Se habla Español" that I had seen a million times helped me understand the use of "se". Maybe because it was so familiar. It's easy to see there was no one named 'Se' around that it's referring to. It simply means Spanish is spoken.
We say it in English that way too sometimes. For example "cars for sale", (se vende carros), or Spanish is spoken (se habla Español), and yours, little by little learning happens (poco a poco "se" aprende). You're not relating it to anyone in particular, you're just saying it happens.
So that's what it means when you have the word "se" in front of a verb. Of course it has other meanings in other contexts, but for this question that's the long and short of it!
Irfan:
Poco a poco se aprende = Little by little it is learned. (poco a poco es aprendido)
A form that most people today try to avoid, but it is a grammatically sound phrase.
Check out the section on" Reflexive Verbs" half way down the page you will find the heading "Reflexive Pronouns". "Se" is a reflexive pronoun ((It's worth reading) I've read it a few times and will probably need to read it again myself)
