Il se voit refuser le prêt.

Breakdown of Il se voit refuser le prêt.

il
he
refuser
to refuse
se voir
to see oneself
le prêt
the loan

Questions & Answers about Il se voit refuser le prêt.

Why use se voit refuser instead of a standard passive like Il est refusé le prêt?
In French, a person who is the indirect object of an action (like someone receiving or being denied something) cannot be the subject of a normal passive sentence. To translate English phrases like "He is given" or "He is refused," French uses the se voir + infinitive structure instead.
Why is refuser left in the infinitive? Shouldn't it act like a past participle here?
No, the construction strictly requires se voir followed by an infinitive. If you translate it literally, it's akin to saying "He sees [someone] refuse him the loan." The infinitive represents the action being performed by an unnamed third party.
Is there a simpler way to say this using everyday French?
Absolutely. A very common alternative in spoken French is to use the active voice with the pronoun on: On lui refuse le prêt (literally, "One refuses him the loan"). The se voir structure is slightly more formal and keeps the grammatical focus strictly on "him."
If I wanted to replace le prêt with a pronoun to say "He is refused it", where does the pronoun go?
It goes right before the infinitive verb it belongs to. Since the loan is what is being refused, you use the direct object pronoun le and place it before refuser, giving you: Il se voit le refuser.

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