Quote:
Originally Posted by pacomartin123
But I am told that the following statement is incorrect:
(1) "se puede ver muchas estrellas"
It should actually be as follows (with plural verb):
(2) "se pueden ver muchas estrellas"
Is (1) acceptable? If not, why not?
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Not easy to explain. When infinitives are involved, Spanish students should use "puede/n verse". The better option is "pueden verse muchas estrellas" or "se pueden ver muchas estrellas", as there are still many stars in spite of the impersonal subject. In America -the continent ranging from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego- we use a lot "se puede ver muchas estrellas" that is a sort or "absolute" impersonal or maybe a "lazy" impersonal -as you don't need to think in coordinating with the following part of the sentence-. But when you try to say "puede verse muchas estrellas", you perceive the lack of coordination.
My warning about "puede/n verse" instead of "se puede/n ver" comes from "poder + infinitive" being a "perÃfrasis verbal" in Spanish, so you can take "puede/n ver" and add the pronoun at the beginning or the end ("se pueden ver" or "pueden verse"), but other common structures are not "perÃfrasis verbales" -or they are not widely acknowledged like that-, for instance, "quieren irse" which cannot be put as "se quieren ir" although informally we all say it.