El hombre, uno, cualquiera… Making generalizations
These are some of the structures we use to make generalizations or statements that are not about a specific person:
- El hombre (man) + verb in the 3rd person singular to refer to human beings in general.
El hombre descubrió el fuego hace más de un millón de años.
Man discovered fire over a million years ago.
- Cualquiera (anyone) + verb in the 3rd person singular to generically refer to a single random person, without specifying who.
Hoy en día, cualquiera puede tener una página web.
Today, anyone can have a website.
- Uno (one) + verb in the 3rd person singular to make a generalization or express a neutral opinion.
En esta ciudad, uno puede perderse fácilmente.
In this city, one can easily get lost.
Notes:
- To express a neutral opinion, women may say uno (masculine) or una (feminine).
Uno/Una ya no puede decir lo que piensa.
One can no longer say what he/she thinks.
- To make generalizations, we may use other structures with no specific subject:
Se habla portugués en ese país.
Portuguese is spoken in that country.
Hablan portugués en ese país.
They speak Portuguese in that country.
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