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Incomplete Passive Voice (Spanish)

  Tags: Passive | Grammar | Spanish
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15 messages over 2 pages: 1
Javi
Senior Member
Spain
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419 posts - 548 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*

 
 Message 9 of 15
22 June 2009 at 6:10pm | IP Logged 
Cainntear wrote:
To lose weight here is reflexive -- you "lose-weight yourself", and the "se" means yourself here. However, in the other someone else is giving a ticket to you.


Careful there, you have a number of ways to say to lose weight, like perder peso, bajar de peso, adelgazar, but as far as I know, neither of them is used pronominally. So, it is adelgazar, not adelgazarse.

Quote:
The error here is that both sentences are using "Usted" (se maneja, se hace) except for this "te darán" bit. To make it fit the Usted form, it should be le darán -- they will give to you, sir.


It's not usted, it's just that impersonal sentences in Spanish go in the third person singular, like usted. An impersonal sentence is not necessary here anyway.

Edited by Javi on 22 June 2009 at 6:13pm

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Javi
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Spain
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Speaks: Spanish*

 
 Message 10 of 15
22 June 2009 at 6:24pm | IP Logged 
charlmartell wrote:
The Spanish active "se" construction often replaces an English passive one:
   se vende casa - house for sale (= is being sold)
   se hace así - it's done this way
   no se permite - it is not allowed
   etc.


You should remove se vende casa from that list, and possibly no se permite (no se permiten perros), as they are passive sentences (pasiva refleja con se)

Edited by Javi on 22 June 2009 at 6:31pm

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Javi
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Spain
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 Message 11 of 15
22 June 2009 at 6:27pm | IP Logged 
TheBiscuit wrote:
Yes, be careful what you're calling passive in Spanish as it more often than not replaces the passive in English.

Se dice que - It is said that
Se puede hacerlo así - It can be done like that or as the others have pointed out 'One can do it like that'.
If you want something similar to English you can use uno in the the same way you use one in English - si uno maneja como loco... if one drives like a nut.



Se puede hacer así.

Cheers.
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charlmartell
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 Message 12 of 15
22 June 2009 at 8:11pm | IP Logged 
Javi wrote:
charlmartell wrote:
The Spanish active "se" construction often replaces an English passive one:
   se vende casa - house for sale (= is being sold)
   se hace así - it's done this way
   no se permite - it is not allowed
   etc.


You should remove se vende casa from that list, and possibly no se permite (no se permiten perros), as they are passive sentences (pasiva refleja con se)

Of course they are passive in meaning, that's why this construction is called pasiva refleja, passive meaning expressed by means of the reflexive "se" + active form.

"no se permite" is usually followed by an infinitive and therefore is definitely an impersonal construction. I would have used "no se admiten perros" but, like in English "dogs not allowed", no se "permiten" perros would in fact be, as you say, a pasiva refleja. And I agree, here the structure wouldn't be impersonal but active with passive meaning.
As for "se vende/n casa/s", that is in fact a pasiva refleja. So I'm agreed, remove "se vende casa" from my list.



Edited by charlmartell on 22 June 2009 at 8:14pm

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Cainntear
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 Message 13 of 15
22 June 2009 at 9:00pm | IP Logged 
Javi wrote:
Careful there, you have a number of ways to say to lose weight, like perder peso, bajar de peso, adelgazar, but as far as I know, neither of them is used pronominally. So, it is adelgazar, not adelgazarse.
...
It's not usted, it's just that impersonal sentences in Spanish go in the third person singular, like usted. An impersonal sentence is not necessary here anyway.

Oops. I got a bit fixated on the English "They say" and didn't read it properly, assuming it was like "dicen" rather than "se dice". Very silly mistake.
Javi wrote:
You should remove se vende casa from that list, and possibly no se permite (no se permiten perros), as they are passive sentences (pasiva refleja con se)

That´s a matter of terminology. The books I've been learning from call it "impersonal" and the word "pasivo/a" doesn't come into the name at all. When I've taught Spaniards about the passive in English, some of them have been quite firm in telling me that "se permite" is not passive, and that the passive is es permitodo. People use different words
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charlmartell
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 Message 14 of 15
23 June 2009 at 9:11am | IP Logged 
Cainntear wrote:
Javi wrote:
Careful there, you have a number of ways to say to lose weight, like perder peso, bajar de peso, adelgazar, but as far as I know, neither of them is used pronominally. So, it is adelgazar, not adelgazarse.
...
It's not usted, it's just that impersonal sentences in Spanish go in the third person singular, like usted. An impersonal sentence is not necessary here anyway.

Oops. I got a bit fixated on the English "They say" and didn't read it properly, assuming it was like "dicen" rather than "se dice". Very silly mistake.


Very silly mistake indeed. But then, if you were thinking of "they", why did you say "usted"? As you said quite clearly:

Cainntear wrote:
The error here is that both sentences are using "Usted" (se maneja, se hace) except for this "te darán" bit. To make it fit the Usted form, it should be le darán -- they will give to you, sir.

Now why did you immediately assume, as so often, that the answer sheet Kaylalyak was given was wrong? His book is obviously dealing with American Spanish, cf. manejar instead of conducir, so maybe they use structures we wouldn't use over here. That's why I tried to come up with a justification for the "te". It was maybe a bit far-fetched and, as I said, I personally would have used a different construction altogether. But who are we to lay down the rules for them?

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TheBiscuit
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Mexico
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 Message 15 of 15
23 June 2009 at 7:43pm | IP Logged 
charlmartell wrote:
Now why did you immediately assume, as so often, that the answer sheet Kaylalyak was given was wrong? His book is obviously dealing with American Spanish, cf. manejar instead of conducir, so maybe they use structures we wouldn't use over here. That's why I tried to come up with a justification for the "te". It was maybe a bit far-fetched and, as I said, I personally would have used a different construction altogether. But who are we to lay down the rules for them?

"Si se maneja como un loco, te darán una multa."

Thinking about it, it does look a bit strange. I think what the book was trying to do (albeit in a strange way) was get the student away from using the tú to say you in general, which you can do although it sounds a bit direct.

In Mexican Spanish you'd probably hear something like: si uno maneja como loco, le dan una multa/le van a dar una multa/le van a multar etc. as uno is generally used more than the reflexive to avoid tú. The future tense is hardly used in speaking here so you'd hear the present or going to.


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