Help with passive se and impersonal se!
I was reading a Peruvian news article about Pisco Sour (Don't fight over as to where Pisco Sour actually belongs to. That is not the point). The link to the article is here:
Qué países reconocen el pisco como peruano y cuáles como chileno
I can understand the flow of the sentence below. However, I have a trouble understanding how to distinguish between impersonal and passive se. For example,
La denominación de origen no es más que una calificación que se emplea para proteger legalmente ciertos productos que se elaboran en una zona determinada.
My translation: The guarantee of the name's origin is nothing more than a certificate that is used for legally protecting certain products that are made in a determined zone.
I know that "se emplea" here can be translated as "...is used for..." and what follows after is the infinitive "proteger". Would this part of the sentence be considered impersonal expression? I learned that impersonal expression does not have a direct object. But the first part of the sentence does... namely "La denominación de origen." If past participle "es empleado (is used)" is used rather than "se emplea", would there be that much of a significant difference?
I guess the second part of the sentence which has "se elaboran" would mean that certain products "are made" in determined zone. I know this is passive se because there are direct objects ("ciertos productos").
As you have noticed, I am confused about what "se" refers to... Can anyone clear up this for me?
Thanks in advance.
--Update--
So far, after reading one answer, I think that the example sentence above is passive. The reason is that there is a direct object being mentioned. Impersonal se is used when there is no direct object being mentioned. This distinction makes it clear for me to some extent.
Thanks for the answer. I appreciate it.
2 Answers
The passive is also used to talk about processes. We don't want to mention who performed the action. We focus on the action itself.
La denominación de origen no es más que una calificación que se emplea para proteger legalmente ciertos productos que se elaboran en una zona determinada.
These are both cases of the passive reflexive in Spanish and we use the correct form of ser to construct the passive. Hence se emplea = es empleada (= la calificación, but we don't know who performs this action) and se elaboran = son elaborados (= los productos, but we don't care who does this).
Using the correct form of ser + pasado paticipio carries the same meaning.
This should help http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/87
What I took from it, the impersonal se is used to express things that are done naturally (usually by multiple agents) but points at no specific person, where as, the passive se is used to describe something that was done by a person or thing that is unidentified.
Impersonal se:
Se habla inglés en Estados Unidos. (This is a naturally occurring thing over time)
Passive se:
Se rompió el vaso. (Some unidentified person or thing broke the vase) Since we can't blame anyone, we use the passive se to say the vase "broke itself".
The two examples that you used are both Impersonal because they talk about a process that is completed over timed without holding anyone personally responsible for the action. "Se emplea" is referring to "calificación". As in, the qualifications is used by no specific person. (It literally means "it uses itself")
If you use "Es empleada", you are saying that this process was physically done by a specific entity instead of just being done. Do you get my drift?
