Breakdown of Se guardan las semillas de sandía para el huerto de la escuela.
la escuela
the school
de
of
para
for
guardar
to keep
se
one
la sandía
the watermelon
la semilla
the seed
el huerto
the garden
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Questions & Answers about Se guardan las semillas de sandía para el huerto de la escuela.
Is this an example of impersonal se or passive se?
Se in Se guardan is the passive se. In this construction, the object that receives the action (las semillas) becomes the grammatical subject, and there is no explicit agent. The verb guardan agrees in number with las semillas (plural).
Why do we use the definite article las before semillas when talking about seeds in general?
Spanish often uses the definite article to make a generic or category-wide statement. Saying las semillas de sandía refers to watermelon seeds as a class rather than to one random seed or a subset.
Why is it semillas de sandía instead of semillas de la sandía?
When de indicates type or material (here: seeds of watermelon in general), you drop the article. Using de la sandía would point to a specific watermelon (e.g. “the seeds of that particular fruit”).
What’s the difference between huerto and jardín?
A huerto is a vegetable garden or orchard for growing food (vegetables, fruits, herbs). A jardín is typically a flower garden or decorative green space. Since schools grow edible plants or teach agriculture, huerto is the right word.
Why do we use para in para el huerto de la escuela and not por?
Para expresses purpose or destination (“for the school garden”). Por would convey cause, reason, or movement through something (“because of” or “by means of”), which isn’t the intended meaning here.
Could we drop the article and say Se guardan semillas de sandía…? How would that change the nuance?
Yes. Se guardan semillas de sandía (without las) is still correct and leans more toward an impersonal general statement (“one stores watermelon seeds”). Including las makes it slightly more specific or refers to a known batch of seeds.
How would you express the same idea in an active voice with we as the subject?
You could say:
Guardamos las semillas de sandía para el huerto de la escuela.
Here, guardamos is first person plural (“we store”), making the sentence active and specifying who performs the action.
Why is the sentence in the present tense? Could it be in another tense?
The present tense indicates a general practice, habit, or even an instruction. To talk about past storage you’d say Se guardaron las semillas de sandía… (“the seeds were stored…”). For future plans: Se guardarán.
Why does sandía have an accent on the í?
Sandía contains a hiato (two separate vowels i + a) and the stress falls on that second-to-last syllable. The accent mark shows both the correct stress (on dí) and prevents those vowels from forming a diphthong, splitting them into san-dí-a.