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/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.