# myydä = "to be sold"?



## Gavril

Päivää,

I just noticed this in an Uusi Suomi article:



> - Tuote jossa on pelkkää sinkkiä, näyttää myyvän eniten.



"The product containing plain zinc seems to sell the most."

In English, the word "sell" can either mean "offer something for sale" (_He sold his car_) or "to be sold" (as in _This product has sold like hotcakes_). But this only works because English verbs can often be used transitively or intransitively, without the addition of any suffixes (compare _He read the last paragraph of the book_ vs. _The last paragraph of the book reads very awkwardly_).

In Finnish, by contrast, you normally have to add an ending to make a transitive verb intransitive, or vice versa: _Hän valmisti ruoan_ vs. _Ruoka valmistui._

Is it possible that the use of _myydä_ in the sentence above (_tuote jossa on pelkkä sinkkiä näyttää myyvän eniten_) is influenced by the corresponding English construction? I think it would sound more correct to say _näyttää myytävän eniten_, but I could very well be wrong. What do the Finns think?

Kiitos


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## Grumpy Old Man

You are right up to the point where you suggest _näyttää myytävän._ It should be _näytetään myytävän._ I usually say: _tuntuu käyvän kaupaksi parhaiten._ I think this use of _myydä_ is indeed based on English, but I am not sure. There are probably better experts on this.

In today's schools little attention is paid to grammar and consequently it is quite common even for journalists and reporters to use transitive verbs incorrectly. The other day I saw this headline in _Ilta-Sanomat: Tilanne helpottaa ensi vuonna._

GOM


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## Gavril

Grumpy Old Man said:


> You are right up to the point where you suggest _näyttää myytävän._ It should be _näytetään myytävän._ I usually say: _tuntuu käyvän kaupaksi parhaiten._ I think this use of _myydä_ is indeed based on English, but I am not sure. There are probably better experts on this.
> 
> In today's schools little attention is paid to grammar and consequently it is quite common even for journalists and reporters to use transitive verbs incorrectly. The other day I saw this headline in _Ilta-Sanomat: Tilanne helpottaa ensi vuonna._
> 
> GOM



Interesting -- do you think this use of _helpottaa _is based on English or another foreign model?

As you probably know, in English you can say "The situation will ease up next year" (_helpottua_) or "This will ease the situation" (_helpottaa_).


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## Grumpy Old Man

Gavril said:


> Interesting -- do you think this use of _helpottaa _is based on English or another foreign model?


Probably not. People just pay less attention to these things and don't care about the difference between _helpottaa_ and _helpottua._ I'm far from perfect myself but I don't think I could ever say some of the things I hear some sports commentators say on TV, such as: _Ottelu lähestyy sen loppuaan, _or: _Hän on ilmeisemmin sivussa kolmannen erän ajan.

_GOM


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## Hakro

Grumpy Old Man said:


> You are right up to the point where you suggest _näyttää myytävän._ It should be _näytetään myytävän._ I usually say: _tuntuu käyvän kaupaksi parhaiten._


I have to disagree here: _näyttää myytävän_ is correct, _näytetään myytävän_ is so-called double passive that should be avoided although it's very common in spoken language.


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