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En el modelaje, nunca se elige a una persona solo por su apariencia.

En el modelaje, nunca se elige a una persona solo por su apariencia.
In modeling, a person is never chosen solely for their appearance.
From Lesson 400:Impersonal "se" with people (se + a)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about En el modelaje, nunca se elige a una persona solo por su apariencia.

Why is there an a before una persona here if this is translated as a passive sentence?
This sentence uses the impersonal se construction. When the "receiver" of the action is a person, Spanish uses the personal a. Adding this a turns una persona into the direct object rather than the subject. Because there is no longer a grammatical subject for the verb to agree with, the verb is locked into the third-person singular form (elige).
If the sentence were about plural "people" instead of a singular person, would the verb change to eligen?
No, it would stay exactly the same: nunca se elige a unas personas. Because the personal a marks the people as the direct object, the verb has no subject to agree with and defaults to the singular form. This rule exists specifically to disambiguate the impersonal se (someone does it) from the passive se (it is done).
Why is it por su apariencia instead of para su apariencia?
We use por here because it indicates the reason, motive, or cause behind the choice (chosen because of their appearance). Using para would indicate a goal or purpose (chosen in order to achieve an appearance), which doesn't fit the context here.
The verb is elegir, so why does the "yo" form have a "j" (elijo) while this form keeps the "g" (elige)?
In Spanish, the letter "g" makes a soft, breathy sound before "e" and "i". To keep that exact same soft sound before an "o" or "a", the spelling must change to a "j" (elijo). Since elige already has an "e" after the "g", it doesn't need a spelling change to maintain its pronunciation.
Does the suffix -aje in modelaje have a specific meaning?
Yes, the suffix -aje is often attached to verbs or nouns to describe an action, a process, or a related industry. It works a lot like "-ing" or "-age" in English. Here, it turns the concept of a model into the modeling profession or industry (el modelaje).

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