use of the plural se tardan

Karen S.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

use of the plural se tardan

I’m not quite clear about the use of the ‘se tardan’ plural. The examples given are with a plural number of hours/minutes. Are the time units the ‘subject’ of the passive?  In other words if the time was one hour or one minute, could you still use the plural verb? Or is there some other rule that indicates singular or plural?  Or are they just equivalent?

This question relates to:Spanish lesson "Using the Spanish verb "tardar" = to take time"
Asked 6 years ago
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InmaKwiziq Head of Spanish, Native Spanish Teacher

Hola Karen

When we use tardar with "se", if the time is expressed in singular, e.g un minuto, una hora... we need "Se tarda", however when we express the time in plural, e.g dos minutos, dos horas... both forms are accepted: "se tarda" and "se tardan"

Se tarda un minuto en llegar a la estación.

Se tardó una hora en preparar la sala para la fiesta.

Se tardó algunos meses en remodelar el edificio.

Se tardaron algunos meses en remodelar el edificio.

Hope it helps

Inma

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Karen S. asked:

use of the plural se tardan

I’m not quite clear about the use of the ‘se tardan’ plural. The examples given are with a plural number of hours/minutes. Are the time units the ‘subject’ of the passive?  In other words if the time was one hour or one minute, could you still use the plural verb? Or is there some other rule that indicates singular or plural?  Or are they just equivalent?

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