1. SE impersonal / Passive SE Español

2. SE Impersonal • In English, we say: • You shouldn't smoke in a hospital • They say she is very pretty • One never knows when he will turn up • These are "impersonal expressions".  In other words, we don't really have anyone specific in mind when we say "They say..." or  "One" or  " You".  We mean people in general.  This is what we mean by "impersonal". • We use se  in front of verbs to create the Spanish way of making general statements.

3. Se Impersonal • Here are some examples: • Don't forget that if what you are referring to is plural, you need to use the third person plural form of the verb (see the second example above)

4. Passive SE • The "Passive se"  is what we call in English "the passive voice".  An Active voice is when you have a subject doing something with an active verb.  In English a Passive voice has an object having something done to it with or without an identified subject.  

5. Passive SE • Let's look at some examples in English: • The Passive Voice in English uses a form of "to Be" plus a Past Participle.

6. Passive SE • In Spanish, the Passive Voice is normally formed by using • se  + the third person singular or plural conjugation of a verb • Just as we did with the Impersonal se.  • In Spanish there is not a subject - identified or not!

7. Passive SE • Let's look at some examples in Spanish and English: