Breakdown of Vende-se televisão usada neste bairro.
Questions & Answers about Vende-se televisão usada neste bairro.
It’s the passive/indefinite marker (often called the passive se). With a transitive verb like vender, it turns the sentence into something like “is/are sold,” i.e., a neutral “for sale” statement that doesn’t mention who sells.
- Singular: Vende-se televisão usada = “A used TV is sold / Used TV for sale.”
- Plural: Vendem-se televisões usadas = “Used TVs are sold / Used TVs for sale.” Compare with impersonal se (no explicit subject), where the verb stays singular: Vive-se bem neste bairro (“People live well in this neighborhood”). Here it’s clearly the passive se because there’s a thing being sold.
Because the postverbal subject is singular: televisão. In the passive se construction, the verb agrees with what’s being sold:
- Vende-se televisão usada (singular thing)
- Vendem-se televisões usadas (plural things)
Yes—use that if you mean more than one TV is for sale. Make everything agree in the plural:
- Vendem-se televisões usadas neste bairro. Using plural noun and adjective forces plural verb agreement.
In ads and notices, Portuguese often drops the article to sound general and concise: Vende-se televisão usada. If you add the article, you change the nuance:
- Vende-se uma televisão usada = one specific used TV is for sale.
- Vende-se a televisão usada = the used TV (already known in context) is for sale. Much rarer.
- Generic/singular (common on signs): Vende-se televisão usada.
- Explicit singular item: Vende-se uma televisão usada.
- Plural/general: Vendem-se televisões usadas.
- You can also use the “for sale” expression: Há televisões usadas à venda / Uma televisão usada está à venda.
In Portugal, televisão commonly means the device (a TV set) and also the medium (“television” as in broadcasting). On a sign like this, it clearly means the device. Synonyms you might see:
- televisor (more formal/technical, the device)
- TV (informal abbreviation)
- aparelho de televisão (device)
Neste = em + este (“in this”). It’s a contraction used before masculine singular nouns:
- neste bairro = “in this neighborhood” Other demonstratives:
- nesse bairro = “in that neighborhood (near you)”
- naquele bairro = “in that neighborhood (over there/previously mentioned)” Feminine forms: nesta rua, nessa zona, naquela área.
Yes. Typical sign order is verb + se + noun. But you can move elements for emphasis:
- Neste bairro, vendem-se televisões usadas.
- Televisões usadas vendem-se neste bairro.
- Vende-se, neste bairro, televisão usada. All are grammatical; the first is very natural in informative writing.
In European Portuguese, affirmative declaratives default to enclisis (pronoun after the verb) with a hyphen: vende-se. You switch to proclisis (se vende) only when something triggers it (e.g., negation, certain adverbs, relatives):
- Não se vende televisão usada neste bairro.
- Aqui se vendem televisões usadas. So, in your sentence (neutral, affirmative), vende-se is the standard form in Portugal.
Place não before the clitic:
- Singular: Não se vende televisão usada neste bairro.
- Plural: Não se vendem televisões usadas neste bairro. Negation triggers proclisis (se before the verb) and you still keep agreement with the subject.
Yes:
- à venda: Televisões usadas à venda neste bairro. / Há televisões usadas à venda neste bairro.
- Explicit subject: Vendemos televisões usadas neste bairro. (We sell…) These avoid the se construction and are also common.
- vende-se: roughly “VEN-de-sih” (the final e in se is a reduced vowel).
- televisão: “te-le-vee-ZÃW” (final ão is a nasalized ‘ow’ sound).
- bairro: “BAI-hoo” (the double r is a strong, breathy sound in many accents). These are approximations; listening to native audio will help nail the nasal ão and the reduced vowels.