The use of SE in sentences

Question

Help, I cant really figure out how to use the verb 'se' in sentence, for example- They say that pigs are intelligent, I translated it to : Ellos dicen que los cerdos son inteligentes, but then, Fluencia corrected me to- Se dice que los cerdos son inteligentes, please help me, any tips? Thanks

Answer 1

People seem to confuse the impersonal indicative form with passive voice form just as Fluencia has done here. Both forms in the end accomplish the same thing, which is to omit who the agent really is.

Indicative: Dicen que los cerdos son inteligentes. Even if ellos is not mentioned (it´s not necessary), it is the subject and the sentence is impersonal because we don´t know who ellos is.

Passive voice: Se dice que los cerdos son inteligentes. Here there is no subject so obviously we don´t know who is doing the saying, so this sentence is impersonal as well.

I have noticed that Fluencia accepts NO variations whatever from what it teaches. As you say, both of theses answers are correct, but I prefer without "ellos." - Daniela2041, Aug 10, 2016

I agree, for the impersonal "ellos" sounds very unnatural - 005faa61, Aug 10, 2016

Answer 2

What's Fluencia? A translator? Whatever, your attempt is correct. To say se dice, it's actually a passive translated as it is said.

It's an impersonal passive construction.
Other impersonal uses:

1. It was believed by many people until the 19th century that tomatoes were poisonous. (= se creía/creyó por mucha gente ...)
   It is now known they are not. (= se sabe ahora que no lo son.)
2. There were thought to be 1,000 people at the demonstration. (= se pensaba/pensó que hubo/había 1,000 personas en la demostración.)
3. He is known to have been very wealthy. (= se conoce de haber sido muy pudiente.)

Fluencia is a Spanish learning program promoted by SpanishDict. - Daniela2041, Aug 10, 2016

Developed by the creators of SpanishDict. - rac1, Aug 10, 2016

Answer 3

This "passive" construction is used extensively in Spanish. One of the most popular sayings is: "Aquí se habla español." Literally, Here Spanish speaks itself."

Aquí se venden libros. "Books are sold here." (literally "books sell themselves here)

Here's a link to a quick lesson on "passive se."

Link to Passive Se