It doesn't take long for Spanish learners to see the word se used in many contexts. It's a little word with a lot of uses! It can be helpful to study each of its uses and meanings separately to understand its particular meaning in a sentence.
Here are the most common uses of se in Spanish!
Se with reflexive verbs
Se is the third person singular *and* third person plural reflexive pronoun. Reflexive verbs represent actions that the subject does to themself—for example, if you look at yourself in the mirror, and if your cat looks at himself in the mirror, too. For reflexive verbs, se can be translated as "himself," "herself," "itself," "themself," or "themselves," depending on who is doing the action. That's already a lot of meanings!
Some verbs that are reflexive in Spanish aren't reflexive in your language—so you'll have to commit them to memory! One example for English speakers is when you discuss washing your hands. In Spanish, lavarse (to wash oneself) is a reflexive verb that you have to use for hand-washing, even though we don't wash "ourselves" our hands in English! Here are some examples of reflexive verbs with se:
| Reflexive verb with se | Translation |
|---|---|
| Virginia se lava las manos. | Virginia washes her hands. |
| Mis profesores se lavan las manos. | My teachers wash their hands. |
Se for combinations of pronouns
Se is also a pronoun used instead of certain combinations of pronouns.
In some sentences, you'll use both a direct and an indirect pronoun. For example, in the English sentence I send it to him, the direct pronoun is it and the indirect pronoun is (to) him. In Spanish, if the direct and indirect pronouns are both in the third person, they'll both start with l-, as you see here:
| Person | Indirect object pronoun | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | me | Ana me lo envía. | Ana sends it to me. |
| 2nd singular | te | Ana te lo envía. | Ana sends it to you. |
| 3rd singular | le | Ana se lo envía. | Ana sends it to him/her/it/them/you (formal). |
| 1st plural | nos | Ana nos lo envía. | Ana sends it to us. |
| 2nd plural (Spain only) | os | Ana os lo envía. | Ana sends it to y'all. |
| 3rd plural | les | Ana se lo envía. | Ana sends it to them/y'all (formal). |
To avoid having two pronouns in a row with l- (for example, le + lo or les + las), you'll change the first pronoun in the combination to se to avoid the le(s) lo(s) tongue twister.
That means that just this one use of se actually has many interpretations! Here are all the different possible meanings of Ana se lo envía 😵💫
- Ana se lo envía a él. (Ana sends it to him.)
- Ana se lo envía a ella. (Ana sends it to her.)
- Ana se lo envía a elle. (Ana sends it to them (gender neutral).)
- Ana se lo envía a usted. (Ana sends it to you (formal).)
- Ana se lo envía a ellos. (Ana sends it to them (masculine or mixed group).)
- Ana se lo envía a ellas. (Ana sends it to them (feminine).)
- Ana se lo envía a elles. (Ana sends it to them (gender neutral plural).)
- Ana se lo envía a ustedes. (Ana sends it to y'all.)
Se for indirect actions
And we're still only at use #3! Se is also used if you don’t want to specify the subject or if you don’t know who or what the subject is, in what is called the impersonal se.
For example, Se busca periodista means “Journalist wanted.” This use does not designate who is looking for a journalist, and it is often used on signs to address all persons involved in the search.
Se for passive sentences
Another way of not including the subject is to use the passive construction with se. Just like in English, the Spanish passive highlights the action or the result of the action and not the person or thing who did the action. Unlike in English, the Spanish passive essentially makes the object become the subject, and so the verb is conjugated accordingly.
You might already be familiar with some passive uses of se: If you know that Se habla español means "Spanish is spoken (here)," then you know one example of passive se! Here, habla is conjugated in the third person singular, since español is a singular noun, and se is added to make this a passive sentence. This is instead of using uno (one), as in Uno habla español (One speaks Spanish), which is less common in Spanish and sounds slightly more personal—it tends to include the person who is writing or saying the phrase, while se habla does not.
Another example of the passive se is a sentence like No se encontraron oficinas disponibles (Available offices were not found). Here, the verb encontrar is conjugated in the third person plural to match oficinas disponibles, which is plural. If the search was for one office, then the verb would be singular, but the se would remain: No se encontró ninguna oficina disponible. You may also see Ninguna oficina disponible fue encontrada to express a similar sentiment, but it’s much more common in Spanish to use se to express the passive.
Se when it's not your fault!
Ever feel like you were wrongly accused of breaking or losing something… or forgetting one of the uses of se? 🫣 Spanish has you covered with the accidental or “no fault” se!
This is perhaps the most wonderful use of se because it distances the actual doer of the action from the action itself, but it still delivers the important details.
For example, you can say Se me olvidaron las llaves (My keys were forgotten—literally, The keys were forgotten to me) or Se me rompió el vaso (The glass broke (on me)) and not be shouldered with the blame. By including both se and the pronoun for the actor and conjugating the verb according to the object, you show that this was simply an unfortunate action where the actor had the bad luck of receiving the forgetting or breaking! 😅
Don't say we didn't tell you
So next time you forget to study your Spanish with Duolingo, we know it (rarely!) happens, you can say Se me olvidó estudiar and feel absolved! Of course, it’s an entirely different question whether the owl will accept this result… 👀
