...se ven... why 'se'?

Question

I came across this sentence with the following translation accompanying it...

Las cerezas se ven tan jugosas que se me hace agua la boca. The cherries look so juicy that my mouth is watering.

I'm confused about the use of 'se' before the two verbs and was wondering if someone could point me in the direction of an explanation? I don't think the sentence is passive or the verbs reflexive but am quite new to learning Spanish so am probably wrong!

Any help appreciated.

welcome to the forum, :) - 006595c6, Jul 28, 2017

Answer 1

Very nice answer, billy, wow, you even know grammar now!!!

Hi Tom, a very special welcome to such a good question

Actually, this is a regional usage. I am from Spain and over here we do not say that at all.

We would say:

Las cerezas parecen tan jugosas que....

As you can see this looks much more like the English version.

Thank you Heidita. I will make sure that I use parecer in Spain from now on! - billygoat, Jul 28, 2017

Thanks so much for the warm welcome and for clearing that up. That's really interesting to hear :) - Tom4445, Jul 28, 2017

In our region we would say "se ven" or "parecen". - polenta1, Jul 28, 2017

Answer 2

Imagine I said.

Las cerezas ven tan jugosas. That would mean the cherries have eyes and see.
Las cerezas se ven tan jugosas. This means that the cherries are juicy and we can see them with our eyes.

"Ver" or the English verb "llook " in this example are not action verbs. They are sense verbs.

The cherries look nice.
The cherries smell nice.
The cherries taste nice. etc.

The verb is "verse" bien. By the way, we wouldn't use a reflexive or pronominal verb with other senses.
Las cerezas huelen bien. (smell) Las cerezas saben bien. (taste)
Las cerezas suenan bien. (hearing, although it's a crazy example)
but
Las cerezas se ven bien.

Answer 3

Hi mate, welcome to the forum. This pronominal use of the verb 'ver' means 'look' as in to 'seem'. So it is saying that the cherries (las cerezas) look (seem/appear) juicy.

If I said in English "It looks good" it means.... it has a good appearance/seems good. In Spanish they use 'verse'

Thanks so much for clearing that up and for the warm welcome :) - Tom4445, Jul 28, 2017

Answer 4

We could use this "verse" with other examples.

Este vestido se ve bien.
Los mapas que trajiste se ven bien.
La torta se ve divina.
El regalo que tu padre me regaló se ve muy lindo.
etc. etc. etc.