ELONIO
Log inSign up

En esta ciudad no se perdona ninguna infracción.

En esta ciudad no se perdona ninguna infracción.
In this city no infraction is forgiven.
From Lesson 375:Reflexive passive (se)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about En esta ciudad no se perdona ninguna infracción.

Why do we use se perdona here instead of es perdonada to mean is forgiven?
While you could technically say ninguna infracción es perdonada using the true passive voice, Spanish speakers strongly prefer the reflexive passive (pasiva refleja) for general statements like this. Using se plus the third-person verb (se perdona) sounds much more natural when focusing on the action happening rather than who is doing it.
If the sentence were about multiple infractions, how would the verb change?
In the reflexive passive, the thing receiving the action is actually the grammatical subject, so the verb must agree with it. If we changed ninguna infracción (singular) to las infracciones (plural), the verb would have to become plural too, making it no se perdonan las infracciones.
Why is there a double negative with both no and ninguna in this sentence?
Spanish requires a double negative when a negative word like ninguna comes after the verb. Because ninguna infracción is in the second half of the sentence, we must put no before the verb to make the sentence grammatically correct.
Could we put ninguna infracción before the verb instead?
Yes, you can change the word order to En esta ciudad, ninguna infracción se perdona. If you move ninguna before the verb, you must drop the no, because Spanish only requires the double negative structure when the negative word follows the verb.

Learn En esta ciudad no se perdona ninguna infracción and more in Spanish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Spanish →