English Translation
The bike I loved for many years was stolen.
The English translation is terrible, and therefor misleading. It should start with “They stole …”.
From SpanishDict
What is an impersonal sentence?
Impersonal sentences are those where the agent does not exist, or it has been hidden or ignored. This effect can be achieved in many ways .
- From the interpretation of the sentence. One way is to use a passive with “se” are which have a subject, but no agent is mentioned. The subject must agree with it: “Se vende un piso”, “Se venden dos pisos” (See below for more details). The normal passive achieves the same impersonal effect: “El museo ha sido restaurado”. Another method is to use “tú” or “uno”: “En esta universidad tienes que estudiar mucho / …uno tiene que…”, where that “tú” is not the person you are talking to, but anyone.
- From the interpretation and the syntax. Sentences using an impersonal “se” don’t have a subject (at all), and no agent can be found either. The verb is always in the third person singular (See below for details). Sentences in the 3rd person plural can be used to achieve a similar effect: “Me han robado el bolso”, where the subject is not “ellos”, but God-knows-who. In this case, the agent is completely unknown, and “ellos” cannot be mentioned, or the meaning of the sentence changes, and you’d be referring to a particular group of people that you know of. Other sentences with non-finite forms, like “Es preferible votar” have a subject (votar), but “votar” doesn’t have one, so there is no specific agent to be found either.
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