John - se ha visto obligada
I was reading a Spanish blog and I came across this passage:
Empresas como Kraft se apresuran a decir que sus productos, las galletas Oreo en este caso, no contienen leche china. Starbucks, por su parte, ha comunicado que ahora utiliza leche procedente de Hong Kong en todas sus cafeterías asiáticas, y Cadbury se ha visto obligada a retirar sus chocolatinas producidas en China.
Just wondering if anyone can offer insight into the phrase "se ha visto obligada"? It's easy enough to understand as "has seen itself obliged," but I am wondering if anyone can tell me more about the grammar here? Is this a common pattern?
Thanks...
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john, you've got a sensory verb "ver" in the reflexive, which, when all is said and done, behaves like a copula in Spanish. It's the present perfect, so it's something in the past that is relevant to the present.
So you can paraphrase as "Cadbury has been obliged" or "Cadbury has become obliged.
Don't get rattled by "obligada," it's not part of the verb phrase. It's just the past participle acting as an adjective.
So, subject + copula + adjective; that's just a run-of-the-mill predicate adjective structure, just like "Sarah is ticklish" or "the chicken is frozen."
Voilà, your sentence is explained, and no one fell into an English passive-voice trap...
By the way, thanks for the explanation... I read it a while ago, but was in a rush and didn't leave a comment.