Understanding Spanish Grammar: Reflective, Reciprocal, and Impersonal Forms

Posted on Mar 12, 2025 in Linguistics and Applied Languages

Understanding Spanish Grammar

Verb Forms and Their Functions

Grammar. Values are:

  • Reflective: The subject performs the action and is also the receiver of the action. Works with CD (Complemento Directo) and CI (Complemento Indirecto).
  • Reciprocal: When the subject is plural or multiple, they mutually receive the verbal action (CD and CI).
  • Impersonal Reflects: No explicit subject. Constructed with the pronoun ‘se’ + 3rd person singular active verb. The pronoun is not part of the core function words.
  • Passive Reflects: Explicit and implicit subject. Constructed with the pronoun ‘se’ (singular or plural) + 3rd person active voice. Occasionally, it can be clipped.
  • Pronominal: Certain verbs, especially those expressing feelings, require a pronoun as an integral part of the verb conjugation.
  • Allomorph: CI variability (le, les) to avoid cacophony.

Sentence Structure

According to the internal structure:

  • Bimembres: Have both a subject and a predicate.
  • Unimembres: Have either an explicit or implicit subject, with four variations:
    • Nominal: Lacking a verbal nucleus.
    • Impersonal: Grammatical subject without any person (3rd-person-one-person plural), weather or natural phenomena, or existential-grammaticalized verb (except when there is an auxiliary verb).
    • Reflexive: Pronoun ‘se’ is singular + 3rd person.

Speaker’s Attitude

According to the speaker’s attitude: Affirmative or negative statements, questions (direct, indirect, partial), exclamatory, optative (optional), hesitant, hortatory, or mandatory.

Predicate Nature

According to the nature of the predicate: Attributive or predicative-copulative: active transitive or intransitive, reflexive (D or R to itself, D or I mutually reciprocal), themselves or periphrastic passive, reflex.

Infinitive Periphrasis

Infinitive periphrasis:

  • Manners/Duties: tener que, haber de, hay que, deber + infinitive
  • Hesitant/Approximate: deber de, venir a + infinitive
  • Aspectual: Process development or verbal action.
    • Inchoative: Signals the beginning of an action: ir a, empezar a, echarse a, comenzar a + infinitive.
    • Repetitive: Repetition of an action: volver a, insistir en + infinitive.
    • Completed: Action completed: llegar a, terminar de + infinitive.

Gerund Periphrasis

Gerund indicates the periphrasis of them all, or continuativa. estar + gerund (durative action), ir + gerund, venir + gerund, andar + gerund.

Participle Periphrasis

Participle periphrasis has a perfective or completed meaning: ser, tener, llevar, quedar, dejar + participle.

Coordinated Clauses

Coordinated Selection: Linguistic units formed by nexos (links) that do not complement each other.

Types of Coordinated Clauses

  • Copulative: y (e), ni.
  • Adversative: Express a restriction.
    • Restrictive: Express a partial opposition: pero, aunque, sin embargo, no obstante, por lo demás, excepto, más.
    • Exclusive: Express total incompatible prepositions; the first preposition is always ‘sino’: sino que, antes bien, más bien, etc.
  • Disjunctive: Express a relationship of being dropped or choice: o, u.
    • Exclusive: One proposition is true, and the other is not.
    • Inclusive: Can refuse any proposition without meeting any.
  • Distributive: Express a relation of alternation between 2 or more not mutually exclusive propositions. Correlative links: as soon as… like, you… and some… others, sometimes… other times, here… there.
  • Explanatory: Express a relation of equivalence. One proposition clarifies the meaning of the other: es decir, o sea, esto es.

Subordinate Clauses

Adjectival Subordinate Clauses (Relative)

Similar to an adjectival phrase. Nexus: que (relative pronoun), el cual, cuando, donde, quien, quienes. Related determinants: cuyo, cuya, cuyos, cuyas (consistent with the following word). Relative adverbs: donde, cuando, como (function as a liaison and CC).

Substantive Subordinate Clauses

Perform the same functions as a noun in a simple clause.

  • Conjunctions (que, si): Without function.
  • Interrogative Pronouns (qué, quién/es, cuál/es): With function.
  • Interrogative Adverbs (dónde, cuándo, cómo, cuánto): With function.
  • No Connection: When the link is not a subordinate clause, an infinitive is used.
  • Commutation: Replace with neutral ‘Esto’.

Adjectival Noun Clauses

Function as substantive proposals, but they are made by relative links. They have no history, but one can sense it. Nexus: relative pronoun preceded by the article (el, la, los, las), functioning as a determinant of the entire noun preposition. Relative pronouns: quien/es (to function), el/la/los/las que (with function).

Adverbial Propositions

There are 2 main groups:

  1. Adverbiales proper: function as an adverb and CCLugar (place), time and manner.
  2. Improper adverbials: causal, final, conditional, concessive.