EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 64 The Door Opens: Fun with se² 374 / 600
Again, this is completely the same as Spanish se vende and se renta, except for the
word order.
The mediopassive is also used when someone/everyone can hear, see or expect
something:
Nešto N se čuje. Something is heard.
čuti
Mjesec N se vidio. The Moon could be seen.
Očekuje se snijeg N . Snow is expected.
očekivati
Such sentences translate as English passives (is heard). However, they don’t
completely correspond to English passives, since in English you can usually add by
whom:
The Moon could be seen by them.
This is completely impossible in Croatian: if you want to say this, you’ll have to
rephrase the sentence as they could see the Moon, etc.
Perf-like verbs verbs of perception, i.e. vidjeti see and čuti (čuje) hear, when used in
mediopassive, behave as imperfective verbs – you can express the time period:
Dim N se vidio satima I . The smoke could be seen for hours.
Buka N se čula cijelu noć A . The noise could be heard the whole night.
f
Next, you should use it when there’s a group of people that does something, maybe
even everybody, at least in some area:
U Argentini DL se govori španjolski N . Spanish is spoken in Argentina.
U Japanu DL se jede riža N . Rice is eaten in Japan.
jesti
Such sentences also usually correspond to English passive sentences (is spoken), and
to the same construction in Spanish (se habla español en Argentina). Sometimes
such sentences are rephrased with ljudi m pl. people, e.g:
U Argentini DL ljudi N govore španjolski A . People in Argentina speak Spanish.
U Japanu DL ljudi N jedu rižu A . People in Japan eat rice.
jesti
(The same rephrasing can be used in Spanish, with la gente.)
This is also used when you want to say what is the custom, or how people should do
something:
Juha N se jede žlicom I . Soup is eaten with a spoon.
jesti
Again, such sentences usually correspond to English passive sentences (is eaten).
Some sentences are ambiguous, for example the following sentence could be a part
of recipe or simply a statement what’s going on in the oven:
Meso N se peče dva sata 24 . Meat is roasting for two hours.
peći
The French ‘reflexive passive’ has the same use: