Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

The passive reflexive 24.3Contrast:El delincuente es detenido por un policía armado.The criminal is being arrested by an armed policeman.Los libros eran apilados.The books were being piled up.El delincuente está detenido.The criminal is under arrest. (state)Los libros estaban apilados.The books were piled up. (state) 42.1 (p. 247)24.2 Estar + past participle22.2 (p. 105)Examples:La ventana todavía no está cerrada.The window still isn’t shut.España está dividida en varias autonomías.Spain is divided into several autonomous regions.This construction always denotes a state. An agent (i.e. whoever or whatever isresponsible for the state) is expressible only if it has continuing involvement in thestate.La persiana estaba bloqueada por óxido.The blind was blocked with rust.La significación está determinada por el contexto.The meaning is determined by the context.24.3 The passive reflexive23.9 (p. 111)The third person reflexive is probably the commonest Spanish equivalent of theEnglish passive. Examples are:Se celebrarán las elecciones en marzo.The elections will be held in March.La nueva ley se aprobó en 1992.The new law was approved in 1992.Se rechazó la propuesta.The proposal was rejected.The passive reflexive should not in general be used when the reflexive could beinterpreted literally, e.g. los soldados se mataron, which would mean ‘the soldiers113