Los equivalentes del «se» impersonal en inglés

Abstract

This article is an attempt to find the equivalents of the Spanish impersonal se in English. The function and meaning of this pronoun is briefly discussed so that this use of se may be distinguished from other uses of the same pronominal form. The sentences containing this kind of se occur in the 3rd person singular only. The idea expressed in them is action carried out in relation to a human entity by an unmentioned human agent. Impersonal se points to the logical subject of the sentence. The whole secret in dealing with these constructions lies in knowing what referent this impersonal se is pointing to. This must be inferred from the contextual situations. This pronoun has no parallels in English. It covers concepts of singular and plural, masculine and femenine. So there is a wide range of possible translations for impersonal se in English. It is usually expressed in English by nouns, personal pronouns with personal reference. They are generic in meaning but in a contextual situation their reference may be narrowed down to only one person or to a specific group of them.