Breakdown of Se convoca a los hombres que tienen mucho carisma.
tener
to have
mucho
many / a lot
el hombre
the man
que
that / than
se
(impersonal) one / passive marker
convocar
to summon / to call for
el carisma
the charisma
a
personal 'a' (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about Se convoca a los hombres que tienen mucho carisma.
Why is the verb singular (convoca) if plural men (los hombres) are being summoned?
This happens because of the personal a in a los hombres. When you use the personal a before a group of people, it prevents them from becoming the grammatical subject of the sentence. Without a plural subject for the verb to agree with, the sentence uses the impersonal se construction, and the verb is forced to stay in the singular third-person form (convoca).
Could I just write this without the a as Se convocan los hombres...?
Yes, you can. If you drop the personal a, los hombres becomes the subject, and you use the passive se with a plural verb (Se convocan los hombres). However, using the personal a with the singular impersonal verb is often preferred when talking about people because it removes any ambiguity. Without it, Se convocan los hombres could theoretically be confused with a reciprocal action like "The men summon each other".
If the main verb is singular, why is the second verb tienen plural?
The second verb belongs to a relative clause starting with que (who/that). Here, que refers directly back to los hombres. Since the men are plural, the verb describing what they possess must also be plural (tienen), completely independent of the singular impersonal verb (convoca) at the start of the sentence.
Why does the sentence use mucho with a word ending in "a" like carisma?
Even though it ends in "-a", carisma is a masculine noun. In Spanish, many words of Greek origin that end in -ma are masculine. You've likely seen this rule before with words like el problema, el sistema, or el clima. Because it is masculine, it takes the masculine adjective mucho.
Learn Se convoca a los hombres que tienen mucho carisma 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