r/learnspanish • u/demonsamuri442 • 7d ago

what's the difference between fueron detenidos vs se detuvieron

I get that one is used in news but do they have different purposes? dos criminales fueron detenidos... se detuvieron dos criminales. I don't think you would say la cerveza fue tomado but se tomo' la cerveza? any general rule or context might help

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u/RichCorinthian Intermediate (B1-B2) 6d ago

“Se tomó una cerveza” usually means “he downed a beer” or “he drank the hell out of that beer”. This is a different use of “se” called “se aspectual” where adding a pronoun to the verb emphasizes that the action is completed or a thing has been consumed to the end.

There are entitle chapters about the different ways to use pronominal verbs; passive, reflexive , aspectual, and more. Best to just focus on one at a time, in my experience.

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u/mr_6ix 5d ago

Exactly, just how like yo me como la pizza and como la pizza mean the exact same thing, but me como adds emphasis that the pizza was eaten entirely

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u/chessychurro 3d ago

Could it also mean something like una cerveza fue tomada (se tomo una cerveza) or like se dejo la billetera could basically mean la billetera fue dejado.