Se in Spanish: How to Teach Se Impersonal and Other Uses

I was watching my former student teacher, now an amazing teacher, explain the se impersonal using a method that made me raise two eyebrows. Why didn’t I teach it that way? She is so GOOD!

No matter how hard we try, students will confuse the reflexive, the impersonal “se” and the non-intentional “se”. In order for them to see the difference, we must formally teach the difference and check for understanding. I like how she made them actually NAME which “se” they were talking about.

WHEN TO USE SE IN SPANISH: TEACH STUDENTS THE DIFFERENCE

In this video you can see a few sample slides of the PowerPoint in which students learn all the different uses of the Spanish se: The se impersonal, the non-intentional se, the passive voice, the se in reflexive verbs, the indirect object pronoun used in double-object pronouns, and the reciprocal (meaning “each other”).

Another snag in teaching the non-intentional “se” is that, after we teach it, students try to make EVERY sentence non-intentional. I ask them, “Where’s the object? There has to be an object.” For example: Se me cayó EL LIBRO. That helps them see the difference.

In my PowerPoint and lesson plans, I ask students to tell me what “se” means in many different sentences.

USE HUMOR TO GET LANGUAGE STRUCTURE TO STICK

Humor is also important to imbed concepts. Memes are great attention-getters. I begin each lesson with a funny attention-grabber that uses the structure I’m teaching.

The Challenges of Teaching the Se Impersonal

Comprehensible Input

Most importantly, students hear the non-intentional “se” repeated in context as I narrate the TPRS Story, and then they write their own story of mishaps. By the time we finish, they have mastered all the uses of “se”.

Here is the story: TPR Story for the Non-intentional SE

TPR Story and Activity for Non-intentional Se

Here is the PowerPoint I use: Spanish Uses of SE from Reflexive to Non-intentional

How I teach the common uses of Se in Spanish

First, I show students the many ways se is used and how each use changes its meaning. In every instance, I give students the word in context and, when possible, visuals. Below are the uses I teach.

Reflexive verbs: Se lava las manos.
Reciprocal: Ana y Luis se quieren.
Indirect object pronoun—Se replacing le or les before lo, la, los, or las: Se lo dio. (Review the double-object pronoun structure.)
Impersonal se / Se impersonal: Translates into “one” or “they”: Se come bien en ese restaurante. / Se dice que la maestra es muy buena.
Passive se / pasiva refleja: Se aceptan tarjetas de crédito.
Passive voice with ser + past participle / La voz pasiva con agente: El poema fue escrito por Robert Frost.
La voz pasiva sin agente / pasiva refleja: Se construyó la casa hace cien años.

TEACHING SE IMPERSONAL AND PASSIVE SE (LA VOZ PASIVA)

ACTIVIDADES

I teach/model, check for understanding, then provide tons of practice. Below are examples of activities I assign.

Students practice subject-verb agreement / la concordancia. For example: Se alquila / Se alquilan botes.
We compare the active voice and the passive voice: “La tienda vende libros” vs. “Se venden libros.” Then, students change the active voice to the passive voice.

COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT

Students answer questions using the passive voice and the impersonal se.

STUDENT PRODUCTION

Students ask each other ridiculous, illogical, or correct questions in a paired activity. For example: ¿Se compran manzanas en la heladería?

FUN AND GAMES

Students play Kahoot Game.
Students answer questions with visuals like the one about Marilyn Monroe below.
Students answer silly questions about students in the class. (A great way to get 100% student participation is to insert photographs of your students into your PowerPoints.)

TEACH THE NON-INTENTIONAL SE (SE NO INTENCIONAL):

Then I teach the non-intentional se structure. (I use a PowerPoint with visuals.)

I act out situations such as dropping a pencil, while saying “Se cayeron las llaves” then, “Se me cayeron las llaves,” and “Se rompió el lápiz” then, “Se le rompió el lápiz.”

As I act out different scenarios, the students fill in the missing pronoun: ¡Ay! A mí se___cayeron las llaves. ¡Ay! A Marta se ____cayeron las llaves. ¡Ay! ¡Se _____cayeron las llaves a Pedro y a Manuel!

In addition, while I am acting out the situation, I keep asking students if the action is “el se impersonal” or “el se no intencional” and point to the VIP on the board (Visual Instructional Plan per Fred Jones). I point out (in Spanish) that it is called “impersonal” because no one knows WHO did it. (Se cayeron las llaves.)

COMPARE THE ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION WITH THE NON_INTENTIONAL SE CONSTRUCTION

I compare “Olvidé mi llave” with “Se me olvidó la llave.”

I show students how to use a + a person’s name to identify the person affected when “le” or “les” is ambiguous. For example: A Diana se le olvidaron las llaves. (Identifies whose keys were forgotten.)

I also explain that a stressed pronoun, such as “a mí,” emphasizes the person affected. For example: A mí se me cayeron los libros. (Emphasizes that it happened to me.)

COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT

After preteaching the vocabulary, I tell a story about the terrible day Marisela had. Students look at drawings as I tell the story, and tell me which drawing I am describing. I ask questions as I tell the story, mostly to repeat the vocabulary and structures rather than to check comprehension. For example: ¿Qué tenía? ¿Tenía muchos libros? ¿Qué le pasó? Sí…”

After telling the story, I give students a list of events, and they must put them in order based on the story.

FUN AND GAMES:

Students describe the images using the non-intentional se. For example, in the image below, students would write, “Se le compuso el coche.”

Students make up excuses for why things happened using the non-intentional se.
Competition between two teams. Students write ten sentences using the following verbs:
caerse (to fall), olvidarse (to forget), perderse (to get lost), romperse (to break), acabarse (to run out), quedarse (to remain/to be left), ocurrirse (to occur to someone), descomponerse (to break down), and quemarse (to burn).
If the sentence is correct, Team B wins the point. If not, Team A gets the point and can play again.
A student on Team A says the verb, the person, and acts out the situation, then chooses a student on the opposing team to answer. The chosen student on Team B must say the sentence with the non-intentional se. For example: ¡Ay! (caer / a Miguel). Student pantomimes dropping his keys. The student from the opposing team must say “A Miguel se le cayeron las llaves.”

STUDENT PRODUCTION

I model how to act out a story with a partner. Then, in pairs, students write about a terrible day that someone had using the non-intentional se. They act it out in front of the class, alternately narrating and acting it out. I grade both the presentation and the written story with a rubric.

We review all the uses of the Spanish se and students take the test.

READY-MADE LESSON PLANS: LESS PREP, MORE PRACTICE

Ready to use these ideas in your classroom? Save yourself hours of creating slides, writing practice activities, and planning what comes next. All the activities, PowerPoints, and instructions are in the curriculum and lesson plans: Spanish Se impersonal, Se no intencional No-Prep Lesson Plans and Curriculum

These lesson plans do everything for you and include many more activities than I mentioned in this post.

My Spanish Se impersonal, Se no intencional No-Prep Lesson Plans and Curriculum include the PowerPoints, activities, and step-by-step teaching instructions described above—plus many more opportunities for students to practice. They include: