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?
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?
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.