No se pueden hacer dos cosas a la vez.

Sentence Discussions Spanish
#1
English Translation

You can’t do two things at once.

Is the following a translation more true to the Spanish sentence?

“Two things can’t be done simultaneously.”

Update: This is the sentence @pitti42 refers to in an answer to this question. It was struck through before this update.

I’m looking to verify I understand the passive. :slight_smile:

Since “pueden” is plural, it can’t be the “impersonal se” which requires a verb in singular. Also, I think “dos cosas” is the subject in this sentence, and the sentence isn’t allowed to have a subject if the “impersonal se” is to be used.

Or could it be the active voice rather than the passive voice?

“They can’t do two things simultaneously.”

Which is the Spanish equivalent to “One can’t do two things simultaneously.” Or, if you speak German, “Man kann nicht zwei Dinge gleichzeitig machen.”

Update: It can’t be the active voice due to the use of “se”, can it?

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#2

That looks very much like the regular “pasiva refleja”, and “pueden” is in plural because of “dos cosas”.

And this can be translated, as per your strike-thru suggestion, with the english passive, but also with impersonal equivalents, i.e. english “one” or german “man”.
Which means I agree (surprise) with your german “Man kann nicht…”.

You could even be more literal and translate “a la vez” with “auf einmal”:
Man kann nicht zwei Dinge auf einmal machen.

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