The Spanish Pronoun SE - Part One

After giving some thought to some common issues and questions that often arise among the collective of ELE teachers, it occurred to me, after speaking long and profoundly with one of my colleagues (It is well known that as people dedicated to language, we talk long and profoundly about little things—even the placement of a comma) about one thing in particular that raises a lot of problems for students. This thing is something that perplexes and often causes panic among our students. I'm talking about the different uses of the pronoun SE.

Being as strict as possible, we often start by describing the functions of this pronoun so that we may later find a way, without committing any "grammar crimes", of getting our students to embrace a global idea of what it is. By doing so, this will permit them to use this problematic yet versatile pronoun more effectively and naturally.

 As always, "let's start at the beginning, a very good place to start". (Mary Poppins)

"SE" in Spanish - Examples

SE  functions as a dative case (indirect object) for the 3^rd person singular and plural. It is also used as masculine and feminine in combination with the accusative case (direct object) lo, la, los, las. In other words, it substitutes le and les when these pronouns appear together with direct object pronouns.

An example to help clarify this would be: Ayer vi a Marta y le di tu recado. Se lo di nada más verla, para no olvidarme. (Let's not forget that the option "le lo di" is to be excluded since, in Spanish, the adjective "lelo/a" refers to a silly person or someone just not too bright and the confusion between the two pronouns could result in an uncomfortable and relatively dangerous situation.    

SE also has the function of being purely reflexive and/or reciprocal when the subject and the object of the verb are the same.

Example:              se ducha con agua fría. (Marta showers herself)

                Marcos y Elena se odian. (Marcos hates Elena and vice versa)

In other examples like: La ventana se abrió, Cuando la miran se pone rojo and El coche se rompió; the pronoun SE takes on a reflexive characteristic but serves to reflect  the "medium voice"—it is neither passive nor active.

One can also find the pronoun SE with having a possessive function in examples like Mi hermano Pepe siempre se corta el pelo en la peluquería. This function negates the necessity of using a possessive pronoun as happens in English and French. In Spanish, it would be inadequate to say: Mi hermano Pepe siempre (se) corta su pelo en la peluquería. This type of usage, substituting an explicit possessive reference, is achieved not only with the pronoun SE, but also with pronouns in the first and second person (me, te, nos, os) functioning in the same direction:

We should say: Me duele la cabeza. We shouldn't say: Duele mi cabeza.

To end part one of describing the functions of SE, we are going to look at one use that for me, personally, I love since it reflects what it means to be Spanish: the picaresque, echar balones fuera (dodge the issue) or no cargar con el mochuelo (put the blame on someone else). This usage deals with the idea of expressing unintentionality in which the pronoun (and in the case of the 3^rd person we'll talk about SE) serves the fundamental function of "I was there but didn't do anything".

An example that I always like to use is that of Juanito, an absolutely normal seven year-old boy that is in the kitchen sitting with a plate of brussels sprouts in front of him. (Can you think of a plate that kids like least?) You hear a loud sound in the kitchen and you find a broken plate of brussels sprouts all over the floor. Juanito looks at you as with a face that expresses the complete honesty of a child that would never tell a lie and says: "Mama, I broke the plate". But wait; let's not forget that I said that Juanito is a normal child. So, Juanito, our hero, has two options: Mamá, un viento muy fuerte entró por la ventana (cerrada) y el plato se rompió. With this option we have an example of the use of SE used as the middle voice that we saw above. The nexto option and pride to all Spanish lovers, we have this answer: Mamá, yo estaba jugando con las coles, que no me gustan nada, y sin querer, te prometo que fue sin querer, empujé el plato fuera de la mesa, produciendo lo que ves ahora. But wait again; this is a normal seven year old we're talking about! Juanito, being an efficient Spanish speaker like all the kids his age would say: Mamá, se me rompió el plato. And that's that.

Next week we'll continue to tackle the intricacies of the pronoun SE in Part II.