This combination of words is still tripping me up.

Question

Se le imputan cargos por practicar la medicina de manera ilícita en Puerto Rico. I am used to seeing se lo, or se la, i dont get it when it has SE LE, that confuses me. Can somebody explain the grammer or the meaning of that combination of words? Is it being used as in SE is an unknown person or something like that, thanks.

Answer 1

Se le imputan cargos por practicar la medicina de manera ilícita en Puerto Rico.

As I see it here, the se is passive se, the charges are being placed on him (se is being used to avoid saying who is placing the charges). So se refers to cargos, to make it the subject as well as the object. Le is the person the charges are being attributed to.

If you wrote la policía le imputa cargos por...

Then you can see that cargos takes the direct object role. So when you make it passive, it becomes both the subject and direct object, leaving the indirect object as the correct place for the individual being charged.

This is my opinion as a fellow learner.

Your opinion is "right on." - Daniela2041, Oct 31, 2016

Thanks, Daniela. :) - bosquederoble, Oct 31, 2016